# 2026-07-18 - Wabi Sabi Simple by Richard R. Powell
I found Wabi Sabi Simple in a Little Free Library and it's right up
my alley, so to say. I thought i'd share a few excerpts to give a
sample of what the book is like. The author, Richard Powell,
has a personal web site [1].
# Sabi
Japanese readers of literature first used the word /sabi/ to try to
describe the muted and subtle beauty of twelfth- and thirteenth
century poetry, with its autumnal feel and somber mood. The word has
a melancholy ache to it, conjuring up rural images of faded and
wobbly fence lines, fallow fields, and brown sparrows searching for
food among crumpled autumn leaves.
# Wabi
/Wabi/ means poverty, but a genteel poverty such as is found in
farmhouses where the family enjoys the riches of conversation and
connection, while eating simple food from a simple hearth.
Wabi is the detachment from wealth, the recognition that money can't
buy everything, and that it often buys trouble. Wabi is the
resolved attitude of acceptance in the face of hardship and fear. We
fear losing our job, or losing our spouse, or losing prized
possessions, or losing talents, or losing our reputation. Wabi names
the fear itself as the real difficulty and refuses to let it spoil
life. It looks past want to what is essential for life.
Wabi was developed as a concept in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries to tone down aristocratic tea parties. The gatherings were
made simpler and simpler in order to emphasize the relationships and
the gentle pleasure of simple communion.
# Wabi Sabi
When the two related terms were brought together into the phrase
/wabi sabi/ [2], it was a sign of humble grace. It describes a
certain type of simplicity, not the simplicity of square apartment
buildings, nor the unimaginative simplicity of mass media, mass
transportation, or mass marketing. It is not about volume or size.
Bigger is not better and faster is not fantastic. It is about travel
at human speed, eating natural food, and slowing down to be mindful.
It is about respectful conversation, harmonious and peaceful
dwellings, and modest behavior. It is ordered but not orderly,
planned but not scheduled, simple but not simple-minded, and
deliberate without being rigid.
Wabi sabi, if fully realized, is a way of life. It may be helpful to
contrast it with what is slick and stylish and plastic and fake. It
doesn't mean we don't use or appreciate all the positive
technological advances of the modern world, but it does mean that we
understand the need to balance "tech slick" with wabi sabi.
The following chart will help clarify the essential differences
between wabi sabi and "tech slick".
Wabi Sabi Tech Slick
=============================== ===============================
Nature focused Technology focused
Authentic Copied
Allows things to age Strives for eternal youth
Subtleties Bold and obvious
Intuitive Rational
Personal Impersonal
One-of-a-kind Conformity and sameness
In the moment Future oriented
The whole Separated into parts
Open and unresolved Works toward closure
Appreciation Depreciation
Seasonal Quarterly
Flexibility Stability
Paradoxical Black and white
Unrefined Refined
Elegant Ornate
Fractal Square and measured
Organic Geometric
Living Artificial
Handcrafted Mass-produced
Soft edges Hard edges
Patina Plastic
Stone Steel
Listens Talks
Sees Shows
Receptive Arrogant
Slow Fast
Humble Proud
Plain Fancy
Reflective Unconscious
Mindful Mindless
Heartfelt Heartless
Warm Cold
Tolerates ambiguity and Intolerant of contradictions
contradiction and ambiguity
# Naikan
Naikan [3] (pronounced "nye-kahn") is part meditation, part therapy,
and part spiritual practice. And among other things, it is a good
way to begin integrating wabi sabi into your everyday life, because
it fosters humility, appreciation, and noticing.
The word means "inner observation," /nai/ (inner or inside)
/kan/ (observation), and its secret is that it creates awareness
through the simple act of remembering the significant people in your
life.
To gain the most benefit from this experience, you need to set aside
a block of time and follow these instructions:
1. Find a quiet room.
2. Sit comfortably, preferably in a corner or behind a screen with no
other distractions.
3. Thing and/or write lists based on three questions:
* What have I received from _____?
(Name a relative, friend, colleague, etc.)
* What have I given to this person?
* What troubles, difficulties, or worries have I caused this person?
Think of and write down concrete examples.
Choose one person at a time and spend as much time as necessary
working through your history with that person from its beginning to
now. Try to put yourself in the other person's shoes and feel what
he or she has felt. When you have examined your three lists and are
comfortable sharing them, talk to someone about it. At a day session
or retreat a counselor or someone familiar with the method will
regularly ask you, "What did you explore this time?"
By speaking aloud what you wrote, you will make it more real and
confirm for yourself the importance of the process. Finally, when
the time is right, express to the people on your lists your gratitude
for the specific things they have given you. By doing this you will
bring authenticity to your relationship with them and reveal the wabi
sabi nature of the gifts they have given you.
# Single Tasking And The Quest For Simple Elegant Code
Multitasking, the ability to do more than one thing at a time, has
always interested me, largely because I have never really mastered
it. Oh, there are times when I will start the photocopier going and
return to my desk to finish a letter I am working on, but anything
much more complicated than that taxes my capacity. For years I felt
bad about this, felt inadequate because I was unable to hold multiple
threads of activity in the proper order in my mind at the same time.
Then, a few years ago I heard about single-tasking from computer
geeks who expressed their desire to work intensely on one problem
before moving on to the next. When a computer is multitasking, it
divides its computing power up between programs and gives the
illusion that it is doing two things at once. What it is really
doing is a bit of one task and a bit of another, alternating, until
both tasks are done. Because in human terms it takes little time to
execute both tasks, we perceive that the computer accomplishes both
simultaneously. The technique obviously doesn't work all the time,
because most of us have had that frustrating experience when our
computer locks up because too many programs are running at the same
time.
About seven years ago I started designing Web pages. At first I
dabbled with drag-and-drop software, but that led to an interest in
HTML and a short course on advanced HTML techniques. I looked at the
code that the drag-and-drop programs created and was not happy with
the clutter and redundancy I saw. "Simple elegant code," as it's
called in online forums and bulletin boards, produces clean
fast-loading pages. I discovered that Web page designers often
examine the code of other people's pages. When I found "simple
elegant code" I would often whisper to myself "very nice." I was
amazed to find a wabi sabi beauty in the world of "tech slick."
author: Powell, Richard
tags: book,philosophy,self-help
title: Wabi Sabi Simple
# Footnotes
(HTM) [1] Richard Powell's personal web site (JS-only)
(TXT) [2] Wabi sabi (wikipedia)
(TXT) [3] Naikan (wikipedia)
# Tags
(DIR) book
(DIR) philosophy
(DIR) self-help