“If you don’t think on your own, you lose everything.”

Shigehiko Toyama, a master of thought
A timeless teaching 40 years ahead of its time

**** A worldwide bestseller with 2.5 million copies sold
**** Amazon Japan #1 for 22 consecutive weeks
**** Tokyo University Bookstore ranks first in sales for 7 consecutive years

A book by Professor Shigehiko Toyama, who was highly praised by the Japanese public and called a “giant of knowledge,” has been published in Korea.
This book has firmly established itself as a "must-read for the University of Tokyo" and has been a legendary steady seller that has been "tenaciously" sold for 40 years, changing the mindset of 2.5 million readers not only in Japan but around the world.
There is an interesting anecdote about how this book suddenly became a bestseller.
A bookstore employee happened to find this book and, in the hopes that more people would read it, wrote a POP that said, “If only I had read it when I was younger...”
It quickly went viral, selling 250,000 copies that year and jumping to number one on Amazon the following year.
Among the numerous teachings, the one the author particularly emphasizes is the 'power to think for oneself.'
The world is no longer satisfied with honor students who simply submit 'perfect answers'.
Going one step further, we want creative talents who can come up with 'original ideas'.
This book is full of ingenious ways to break out of your comfort zone and unleash the creativity within you.
You will experience amazing things that will broaden your horizons, and you will also encounter great discoveries in your everyday life.

It is said that plants are symmetrical because their visible parts above ground and their roots hidden underground are almost identical in shape.
Flowers bloom because there is a large structure in the ground.
Knowledge is also a flower that blooms on the tree of humanity.
If you just pick flowers and put them in a vase because they are beautiful, they will soon wither.
You can tell just by looking at this that the flower you picked is not yours.

--- p.20

Ironically, the harder schools try to teach and the more knowledge they provide, the more passive learners become.
It is a failure in true education.
--- p.25

As you read, you will come across parts that you admire, parts that you feel uncomfortable with, and parts that you don't understand.
Write all of this down.
If there is a part that resonates with you over and over again, then that part is important.
If you keep seeing mysterious and incomprehensible parts, you also need to be careful.
This is exactly the material.

--- p.38

There is a mysterious power in things that have been held in the heart for a long time.
A sleeping subject becomes incredibly active when it opens its eyes.

--- p.47

This is the editorship of conception.
This is how funny expressions that have the power to intoxicate people come about.

--- p.59

That's not what true organization is.
It is a qualitative change that elevates primary thinking to a higher level.
No matter how much knowledge you have and how often you think and conceive, it will not be elevated to secondary thinking.
You have to let that thought go and wait for the chemical change to occur.
Such a harmonized thought becomes a 'meta-thought' different from before.

--- p.87

No matter how hard you try to forget, there are some things that remain forever.
Because it is connected to the person's deep-seated interests and concerns.

--- p.106

In this notebook, ideas take a break.
If you stop breathing while you are sleeping, you will be thrown away without mercy.
If you don't gain weight while sleeping, it means you didn't have a connection.
An idea that is still interesting when you look at it again is alive and well.
Don't just leave it there, let it rest a little longer somewhere else.

--- p.111

If you pass through the gate of your own mind, you are likely to pass through the gate of someone else's mind.

--- p.112

We are so focused on accumulating knowledge that we don't really think about what to do with the knowledge that enters our heads.
That's how knowledgeable people come into being.

--- p.142

Some knowledge must be discarded.
To discard it naturally is forgetting, and to discard it consciously is organizing.

--- p.145

For humans to become truly human, they must be able to do things that machines cannot or cannot reach.
In that sense, creativity is the greatest thing.

--- p.228