New to Exploring Kodawari? Start Here

Welcome to Exploring Kodawari! We’re so glad that you found our website, and we hope you find something valuable here.

We are a podcast and blog dedicated to exploring the meaningful concept of kodawari. We are classical musicians, and although kodawari usually refers to a specific craft like ours, we think that kodawari is more of an approach to life.

Kodawari is what drives your desire to constantly improve. You are aiming at the ideal— and attending to the small details along the way— even though you realize that you will never arrive. In fact, it’s crucial to realize that you can’t arrive at perfection.

But that shouldn’t induce nihilism—it’s actually what keeps us balanced. We can realize that life is not about arrivals but about process. Our goal is to aim up, to aim at the best version of who we could be, whether or not we will fully achieve it.

And kodawari is the energy that fuels dedication and commitment towards that goal. It is that voice inside our heads that seeks deeper answers and more meaning out of life.

Who we are and what we do

My name is Luke, and my co-host and fellow contributor is Yankı. We are both classical musicians, and we perform and teach for a living.

And this is our new project. It’s a podcast and blog exploring the various manifestations of kodawari, in ourselves and in the world. Our goal is to produce meaningful content that keeps us growing as people, and provides value to our listeners and readers. You can read more about how we got started here.

Podcast

We love the long-form conversations made possible by podcasts. Because you know people will listen, podcasts create the extra incentive to really bring your best into a conversation. It allows you to get under the surface and create deeper and more meaningful connections.

Plus, forcing yourself to communicate with others—to articulate mental concepts into speech—is one of the best ways to develop new ideas and find out what you actually think. And it’s an extremely natural way to learn new things.

Our goal here is to make a space where we can have those deep conversations in a fun and friendly way. It is our motivation and excuse to connect with inspiring people who exhibit the kodawari energy.

Latest episode:

Check out some of our favorite episodes:

Articles

Podcast conversations allow one to think out loud, which is especially good for developing new ideas on the fringe of your thinking. But writing, perhaps the most demanding form of thinking, forces you to mature those ideas and reduce them into their essence. The process can be challenging, but the result is almost always a clearer mind and sharper thoughts.

In our articles, we want to focus on the kind of life wisdom that—despite the suffering and challenges— makes life simpler and more meaningful. For example, we have a growing collection of mental frameworks that can help you think more clearly and make better decisions.

We will be writing about art, music, philosophy, psychology, meditation, creativity, and so much more. Through the process of writing, we hope to improve ourselves, clear up our thinking, and provide value to our readers.

Here are some of our favorite articles:

We want our newsletter to be meaningful, and we respect your time. We will never send spam or other noisy material. Our emails will alert you to new material on our website, and direct you to newly published podcast episodes.

But we also want to send you other meaningful things we find on the internet. This includes articles, quotes, and Youtube videos. We believe that the quality of your mind is a reflection of the content that you feed into it. So we hope that this newsletter will help you—and motivate us—to regularly find new and valuable content.

If you’ve not yet subscribed, we hope you’ll do so now:

We respect your time. No spam or any other fluff. Only updates and other meaningful content.

Why the name?

I first encountered the word kodawari in a 2014 interview with coffee expert Peter Giuliano and it stuck with me. It’s not just a word—it’s an entire concept that carries with it paragraphs of meaning.

When I heard it—at the time I was a music performer in graduate school— it gave me a label for the kind of relentless practice towards perfection that I was already doing.

But it also gave me a framework for understanding that even though you never arrive at your conception of “perfect”, pursuing it on a daily basis is noble and meaningful.

Kodawari manifests itself in so many places, and we want to explore it wherever we can find it. We want to have conversations with anyone who has dived headfirst into a rabbit hole to master something. What makes a human being avoid the temptation of laziness to really pursue something?

The task of living a good life is the ultimate project for a human being, and such a big project should also be approached with the kodawari energy. This podcast/blog is our excuse to keep us moving on that path.

You can read more on our About page, or read our very first article What is Kodawari?