Member-only story
Why You Might Choose to Play Life on Hard Mode
A lesson from the greatest Japanese swordsman of all time.
Do you know about Miyamoto Musashi?
He was a swordsman living during the turn of the 16th century in Japan. He was also a philosopher, strategist, writer, sculptor, and rōnin, ending his life in a cave making amazing wood sculptures and writing his memoirs: a famous book on strategy and tactics called The Book of Five Rings and a not-as-famous book about the philosophy of living well called The Path of Aloneness.
His skill with the blade was literally legendary; not just undefeated after 61 duels, but also at a certain point he just seemed to take pity on his opponents’ hopeless attempts to best him:
His talent was so great that, by the age of thirty, he had sheathed his two katana, and made a point of duelling only with bokken — wooden practice swords — no matter what weapon his enemy chose to use. — WarHistoryOnline about Miyamoto Musashi
“You have to call the shots now.”
I thought about Musashi today as I read a comment from a reader on my recent piece:
