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Following the Essence — A Life Built on What Does Not Change

🇰🇷KO🇺🇸EN🇯🇵JA
Split View필사 모드
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Opening: The Day I Threw Out My Fifth Framework

There is one memory from my years as a developer that still embarrasses me. For a long while, the moment a new technology appeared, I almost reflexively added it to my learning list. When a new JavaScript framework made the rounds, I burned an entire weekend on its tutorial. When a state management library went out of fashion, I rewrote my side project on the spot. After a few years of this, it suddenly hit me: I knew five frameworks shallowly, and none of them deeply. Worse, the fundamentals all of them quietly depend on — data structures, networking, browser rendering, asynchronous processing — were exactly where I was weakest.

That evening, a remark from a senior colleague at LINE came back to me. "You don't chase trends. If you understand the essence, the trends become obvious on their own." At the time I filed it away as a clever line. Only standing in front of that fifth framework did its weight land. This essay starts from that realization and lays out what I have since worked out about spending time on what does not change instead of being swept along by what does. It is not grand philosophy. It is a very practical question about where to put your daily choices.

The Core Insight: What Changes and What Does Not

Jeff Bezos was often asked, "What is going to change in the next ten years?" He liked to point out that the far more useful question is the opposite: "What is not going to change in the next ten years?" Ten years from now, customers will still want lower prices, faster delivery, and more selection. So he concentrated his investment on the three things that would not change.

The same thinking applies to a personal life. We exhaust our energy chasing the next big thing, yet spend almost no time on what will still be valid a decade from now. Chasing what changes is an endless pursuit. Investing in what does not change is an asset that compounds.

So what changes, and what does not? Here is how I draw the line.

DomainWhat changes (surface)What stays the same (essence)
EngineeringFrameworks, library versionsData structures, algorithms, system design principles
WritingTrendy platforms and formatsClear thinking, structure, care for the reader
Language learningSlang, study appsSteady exposure, active recall, speaking practice
HealthFad dietsEnough sleep, regular movement, balanced eating
RelationshipsChannels, buzzwordsTrust, honesty, respect for the other person

The right-hand column was true ten years ago and will be true ten years from now. Where you should put your time and effort becomes obvious.

Reasoning from First Principles

The central tool for following the essence is first-principles thinking. Aristotle defined a first principle as "the first basis from which a thing is known." It is the practice of breaking a problem down to its most basic, undeniable truths and reasoning back up from there.

Most people reason by analogy: "Others do it this way, so I will too." It is fast and comfortable, but it inherits everyone else's assumptions. First-principles thinking instead asks, "Is that actually true? Why must it be so?"

Applying First Principles in Daily Life

That sounds abstract, so here is a concrete case — the way I redesigned my English study.

  • Reasoning by analogy: "Everyone goes to a test-prep academy, so I should enroll too."
  • Reasoning from first principles: "What am I actually trying to do in English? Read technical docs, hold meetings with colleagues, and write. If so, real reading, listening, and speaking exposure is closer to the essence than drilling test questions."

The conclusion changed completely. Instead of an academy, I built a routine of reading English technical docs daily, summarizing meetings in English, and writing short pieces in English. I designed it backward from the essence, which was my actual goal.

Three questions help you reach a first principle.

  1. What am I currently taking for granted as an assumption?
  2. What is the evidence that this assumption is actually true?
  3. If I strip the assumption away, what is the most basic truth that remains?

When Elon Musk analyzed rocket costs, he is famous for starting not from the price of a finished rocket but from the market price of its raw materials. Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that rockets are expensive, he added up the real cost of aluminum, titanium, and copper, found it to be a fraction of the finished price, and from there a path to building them directly opened up.

Long-Term Thinking: Don't Embarrass Your Future Self

A life invested in the essence is, by nature, a long game. And the human brain is poorly built for long games. We tend to treat our future selves almost like strangers. Neuroscience research has reported that when people imagine their "future self," the brain responds in a way similar to when they imagine "another person." That is why sacrificing today for the sake of a future self is so hard.

The psychologist Benjamin Hardy, in Be Your Future Self Now, proposes a way to close that gap. The key is to imagine your future self as a concrete, vivid person and to evaluate present choices from that person's point of view. "If my self three years from now saw this choice, would they be grateful, or would they regret it?"

The Regret Minimization Framework

Bezos used a similar tool. When deciding whether to leave a stable job to start a company, he applied a regret minimization framework: "When I'm eighty, looking back, will I regret having done this, or regret not having done it?" He judged that he would regret not trying, and that became his decision rule.

I borrow this on a shorter timescale. At important crossroads I stop and ask three questions.

  • Does this choice point toward the surface (a trend), or toward the essence?
  • How would my self three years from now judge this use of time?
  • Even if it looks like a short-term loss, is it the side where the gains compound over the long run?

Choices that pass these three questions have left me with far fewer regrets.

How to Spend Time on the Essence

Once you understand the principle, the next step is execution. Spending time on the essence is not a matter of willpower but of design. As James Clear emphasizes in Atomic Habits, you should focus on the system, not the outcome. Here is the step-by-step method I actually use.

A Step-by-Step Practice Guide

  1. Make an essence list. Write down three to five core capabilities in your field that will still matter ten years from now. For a developer that might be data structures, system design, writing, and communication.
  2. Keep a time ledger. Record where your time goes for one week. Compare the share spent on the essence with the share spent on the surface. Most people are shocked.
  3. Reserve essence blocks. Put fixed "essence time" on your calendar first, then arrange everything else around it. The plan to "build fundamentals with whatever time is left over" almost always fails.
  4. Allocate by 70-20-10. Adapt the 70-20-10 model often cited in learning research: 70 percent to real application and experience, 20 percent to interaction and feedback with others, 10 percent to formal study.
  5. Review every quarter. Once every three months, revisit your essence list and assess your progress. Check that trends have not eroded your essence time.

People Who Spend Their Time on the Essence

What the people who win by focusing on the essence share is not flash but persistence. Warren Buffett spends most of every day reading and thinking. He once said his job is basically "to sit in an office and read all day." Instead of chasing hot tickers, he poured his time into understanding the intrinsic value of businesses.

The mathematician Andrew Wiles spent seven years almost cut off from the outside world, concentrating on one problem, to prove Fermat's Last Theorem. It was a choice far removed from quick results or recognition, yet that depth ultimately cracked a 350-year-old puzzle.

What they share is that they gave up short-term visibility and bet on the depth of the essence.

The Traps of Short-Term Temptation, and Balance

If all of this has sounded like "trends are always bad," that is a misreading. Emphasizing only the essence is its own trap. For a balanced view, let us look at the other side.

Trap 1: Using the Pursuit of Essence as an Excuse for Stagnation

Some people turn "fundamentals matter" into an excuse to never learn anything new. If only the essence were truly unchanging, we would fail to adapt and fall behind. The essence does not mean ignoring change; it means having a foundation solid enough to absorb change quickly. Someone who deeply understands data structures picks up a new framework in days.

Trap 2: The Arrogance of Dismissing Every Trend

Some trends are surface fashions; some are paradigm shifts. If you cannot tell them apart and dismiss everything new, you will miss the truly important waves. The internet, mobile, and more recently AI were not mere fads. The key is to ask, "Does this trend change the essence, or is it just a new expression of the essence?"

Trap 3: The Dopamine Trap of Short-Term Reward

Short-term temptations are powerful because the reward is immediate. Learning a new tool gives an instant sense of accomplishment, while building fundamentals shows no visible change for a long time. This asymmetry keeps pulling us toward the surface. So when investing in the essence, it helps to deliberately create small milestones that make progress visible.

AspectShort-term temptationInvesting in the essence
Reward timingImmediateDelayed
Early feelQuick accomplishmentSlow progress
Long-term resultEasily evaporatesCompounds
RiskEndless pursuitSlow to adapt to change

The healthy stance is not either-or but a question of ratio: put most of your time into the essence, and reserve some for exploring new currents. Only with the anchor of the essence can you ride the waves of a trend without being swept away.

Three Noises That Obscure the Essence

Even after you resolve to spend time on the essence, reality keeps sending noise that shakes that resolve. Let me lay out the three noises that shook me most often. Knowing them in advance lets you recognize, in the wobbling moment, "Ah, this is that noise again."

Noise 1: Peer Pressure

The most powerful noise is the people around you. When a colleague shows off a new technology, the time you pour into the essence suddenly feels like falling behind. Conference talks, the Twitter timeline, the hot topic in the group chat — all of it manufactures the anxiety that "if you don't know this now, you're obsolete." But pause and think, and most of what they show off vanishes in six months. Peer pressure is the biggest trap that makes you chase visibility rather than the essence.

Noise 2: False Urgency

The feeling that "I have to do this right now" is often not real. The world does not collapse if you do not learn a new tool today. But investing in the essence — solving one algorithm problem a day, reading one chapter deeply — never looks urgent, so it always gets pushed back. In Stephen Covey's time-management quadrants, the essence mostly belongs to Quadrant II, "important but not urgent." Driven by false urgency, we never get to visit Quadrant II in our whole lives.

Noise 3: The Illusion of Measurement

Surface activity is easy to measure. "This month I learned three new frameworks" produces a clean number. The growth of the essence, by contrast — depth of thinking, design sense, an eye for problems — is hard to measure. Because of the human tendency to be drawn to what is easy to measure, we keep fleeing to surface activity that produces numbers. To beat the illusion of measurement, you must deliberately allocate time to what is hard to measure but truly important.

A Thinking Drill for Finding the Essence: Five Whys

As a concrete tool for approaching the essence, you can adapt the "5 Whys" technique that originated at Toyota. It was originally a tool for finding the root cause of a problem, but it works just as well for finding the essence.

For example, start with the question, "Why am I trying to learn a new framework?"

  1. Why am I trying to learn it? Because everyone uses it.
  2. Why should I learn it just because everyone uses it? Because I'm anxious about falling behind.
  3. Why am I anxious about falling behind? Because I believe my value depends on knowing tools.
  4. Why do I believe my value depends on tools? Actually, it doesn't. Value lies in the ability to solve problems.
  5. Then where should I really invest? Not in tools, but in the fundamentals of problem-solving.

Going down five whys reveals the real motive lying beneath the surface desire. And answering that real motive is usually the essence. Make this drill a habit, and before spending time on anything you will automatically check, "Is this really the essence I want?"

The Compounding of Essence: The Gap Time Creates

The gap between someone who invests in the essence and someone who chases the surface is almost invisible at first. In year one, the person chasing the surface even looks like they "know" more. But after five or ten years, the gap widens dramatically.

This matches the math of compounding exactly. Improve by one percent a day and after a year you are about thirty-seven times better; get one percent worse each day and you converge toward zero. James Clear underscores this calculation in Atomic Habits, and it shows how the small effort stacked on the essence grows when it meets the exponential power of time.

Point in timeChasing the surfaceInvesting in the essence
Year 1Appears to know moreSlow and frustrating
Year 3Looks about the sameThe foundation grows solid
Year 5Repeating the same spotExpanding into new domains
Year 10Chasing yet another trendLeading the field with depth

The important thing is that because this gap is invisible in year one, most people quit in year one. The compounding of essence demands patience. But only those who pass through that patience become the beneficiaries of the gap time creates.

A Closer Case Study: The Essence I Learned at the Table Tennis Table

The place where I came to understand the power of the essence not in my head but in my body was, of all places, the table tennis table. I have played table tennis as a hobby for a few years now, and this small sport became my best teacher about the essence.

When I first started, I was captivated by flashy techniques. I watched professionals' powerful drives and dazzling serves on YouTube and immediately tried to copy them. The results were dismal. I mimicked the cool-looking motions, but the ball kept hitting the net or flying off the table. Months passed and my skill stayed put.

Then a strong player I happened to meet at the club gave me advice. "Forget the flashy techniques. For one month, just repeat your grip, your stance, and your basic forehand form." Honestly, it was boring. Repeating the same motion hundreds, thousands of times had none of the thrill of learning something new. But after that month, something remarkable happened. The drive that had eluded me for so long followed naturally once my basic form was in place.

Fundamentals Make the Advanced Possible

The essence I learned in table tennis is simple. Advanced techniques only work on top of the fundamentals. If your grip wavers, no flashy technique can stay consistent. Conversely, when the fundamentals are solid, a new technique is absorbed in days. This was exactly the same structure as my development experience of knowing five frameworks shallowly.

Distilling the lesson from the table tennis table:

  • Surface flash can be imitated quickly, but it collapses quickly.
  • Fundamentals are boring and slow, but they become the foundation of all application.
  • The better the player, the more time they spend on basic motions. The more novice the player, the more they are drawn to flashy techniques.
  • When skill stalls, the answer is almost always not a newer technique but deeper fundamentals.

That last point applies to every other area of my life. When my English stopped improving, the answer was not a new study app but steady daily exposure. When my writing got stuck, the answer was not a new tool but clearer thinking. The cure for stagnation was almost always deeper essence.

Two Developers, Ten Years Later: A Tale of the Fork in the Road

Let me make it more concrete. Imagine two junior developers, A and B, who joined the same year. They started with similar skill, but they spent their time differently.

A always chased the new. The moment a new framework appeared, A learned it first, and applied every hot library to side projects without missing one. A was always "latest," and was known among colleagues as someone on top of trends.

B was different. When a new framework appeared, B did not dive in right away. Instead, B tried first to understand what problem the framework was trying to solve and on what principles it worked internally. B steadily put time into fundamentals like data structures, operating systems, and networking. On the surface, B looked slow.

The Scene at Year Three

By year three, A appeared to be ahead on the surface. A could handle more tools, and A's resume was flashy. B was still quietly building fundamentals. At this point many people envy A's path.

The Reversal at Year Seven

But around year seven, a change began. Half the frameworks A had learned were already past their prime, and A was busy again catching up with new trends. A's knowledge was wide but shallow, and it felt like starting over each time. B, on the other hand, quickly grasped the essence of any new technology: "Ah, this is ultimately a variation on that principle." Picking up a new framework took B just a few days, because there was a common denominator of fundamentals.

The Gap at Year Ten

By year ten, their positions had diverged dramatically. A was still a practitioner chasing trends, while B had become someone who designs systems and sets direction. B saw problems, not tools, and principles, not fashions.

Point in timeDeveloper A (surface)Developer B (essence)
JoinedSimilar startSimilar start
Year 3Appears aheadLooks slow and frustrating
Year 7Chasing new trends againAbsorbs new tech in days
Year 10Still a chasing practitionerAn architect who sets direction

What matters in this story is that A was not lazy. If anything, A was constantly busy. The problem was not the quantity of effort but its direction. Whether the same energy went to the surface or to the essence produced, over ten years, completely different results.

Auditing Your Week: How to Check Essence vs. Surface Time

Abstract resolutions do not change behavior. So every quarter I audit my week as if I were doing an accounting audit. The method is simple, but the effect is powerful.

Step 1: Record All Your Time

For one week, record your time in thirty-minute blocks. You do not need a grand tool. A notepad or a simple table is enough. The key is to write it down honestly. The thirty minutes spent scrolling social media, the meetings, the walks — record them all.

Step 2: Label Each Activity Essence or Surface

For each recorded activity, attach an essence (E) or surface (S) label. The criterion is the test mentioned earlier: "Will this still have value ten years from now?" For anything ambiguous, it is better to honestly classify it as surface.

Step 3: Compute the Ratio and Face It

Compute the ratio of time spent on essence versus surface. The first time I did this, I was shocked. A large share of the time I believed I had spent on essence was actually surface activity. I thought I was "studying a new technology," but in reality I was passively watching tutorial videos.

Activity typeExampleClassification
Solving algorithm problemsDeeply solving one a dayEssence
Passive tutorial watchingPlaying a video and just watchingSurface
Summarizing meetings in EnglishActive recall and speakingEssence
Social media tech timelineSkimming new headlinesSurface
Engaging deeply in code reviewDiscussing design intentEssence

Step 4: Set Just One Goal for the Next Quarter

The purpose of the audit is adjustment, not guilt. Choose one thing to change next quarter. A concrete, small goal works best, like "cut passive watching time in half and solve algorithm problems with that time." Trying to change everything at once will fail.

Repeat this audit and it becomes vivid where your most precious asset, time, is leaking. What is not measured is not managed.

Common Objections

When I talk about a life that follows the essence, certain objections keep coming back. They have merit, so let me face them honestly.

"These days everything changes too fast for essence to matter"

The faster the era changes, the more important the essence becomes. The faster the change, the more exponentially the cost of keeping up with the surface grows. The essence, by contrast, is the common denominator that runs through all that change. The stronger the wind, the more you need an anchor.

"What if I only dig into essence and miss opportunities?"

A fair worry. That is why I said earlier it is a question of ratio. With an allocation like eighty to essence and twenty to exploring new currents, you build the essence while not missing the signals of important opportunities. The key is the discernment to not react to every trend, yet not miss the trends that change the essence.

"There is no unchanging essence in my field"

Nearly every field has an essence. It just is not easy to see. The tools of marketing change constantly, but "understanding the human heart" does not. Design trends shift every year, but "solving the user's problem" does not. It is not that there is no essence, but that it is hidden behind the noise of the surface.

"I don't have time to invest in essence"

The most common objection, but it is really a matter of priority. Do the time audit mentioned above and you will find you spend more time on surface activity than you thought. It is not that there is no time for essence, but that the surface is stealing your time.

"Even if I invest in essence, the reward comes too late"

True. The reward of the essence comes late. But coming late and never coming are entirely different things. The reward of the surface is immediate but evaporates; the reward of the essence is slow but compounds. The person who cannot bear a reward that comes late spends a lifetime spinning the hamster wheel of immediate rewards. The very ability to endure delayed reward is the greatest competitive edge of someone who follows the essence.

Stoic Philosophy and What You Can Control

The attitude of following the essence connects with ancient wisdom too. About two thousand years ago the Stoic philosophers, especially Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, taught the most important distinction in life: divide what you can control from what you cannot.

In the opening of the Enchiridion, Epictetus says that our opinions, efforts, and desires are within our control, but external reputation and outcomes are not. A wise life begins by concentrating energy on what we can control and letting go of attachment to what we cannot.

This distinction is strikingly similar to the distinction between essence and surface. Trends, others' approval, being a hot topic — these are mostly external factors we cannot control. By contrast, building fundamentals, steady daily effort, the depth of one's thinking — these are entirely within our control.

In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius constantly reminds himself to return to the essence. Even in the most glamorous position of emperor, he focused not on external glory but on the inner virtue he could control. The reason Stoicism has survived two thousand years is that it dealt with the unchanging essence of being human.

A life that follows the essence is, in the end, a life spent on what you can control. You cannot control where the waves of a trend will break, but which anchor you drop is entirely up to you.

Cal Newport's Deep Work and the Time of Essence

Spending time on the essence is not simply a matter of "putting in more time." What kind of time is decisive. The computer scientist Cal Newport makes this point sharply in Deep Work.

Newport divides work into two kinds. Deep work is performing cognitively demanding tasks in a state of distraction-free concentration. Such work creates value, is hard to replicate, and pushes our abilities to their limit. By contrast, shallow work is simple tasks that require no concentration — checking email, responding to notifications, attending meetings.

The crucial insight here is that spending time on the essence is almost always deep work. Deeply understanding an algorithm, designing a system, reading and thinking about a single book deeply — all of these demand undistracted, deep concentration. By contrast, chasing the surface — skimming headlines, letting tutorials wash over you — is mostly shallow work.

Designing an Environment for Deep Work

Here are the suggestions of Newport's that I actually applied:

  • Physically block distractions. During essence time I leave my phone in another room and turn off all notifications.
  • Fix a concentration block. I put a deep work block at the same time every day. Rather than relying on willpower, I make it a habit.
  • Train yourself to endure boredom. A brain accustomed to constant stimulation struggles with deep concentration. I deliberately increase the time I sit without stimulation.
  • Set limits on shallow work. I set an upper bound in advance on the time spent on shallow work like email and meetings.

Modern society steals our deep concentration with endless notifications and stimulation. Swept along by that current, we end up swimming only on the surface our whole lives. To reach the essence, you must deliberately cultivate the ability to dive deep.

The Craftsman's Mind: The Attitude of Honing One Thing for Life

The oldest and purest form of a life that follows the essence is craftsmanship. In Japan there is a culture that points to people who quietly hone one craft over a lifetime — the blacksmith who forges the same blade for decades, the artisan who spends a lifetime trying to shape a single piece of sushi a little better. To them the concept of a trend means almost nothing, because what they pursue is the unchanging essence: simply "something better."

There are three things we can learn from the craftsman's attitude.

  • They see repetition not as boredom but as the process of refinement. A craftsman repeats the same motion tens of thousands of times, yet each repetition differs subtly, because it carries the intention to be 0.1 percent better than yesterday.
  • They take depth, not speed, as the standard. A craftsman asks not "how fast" but "how well." Even if it takes longer, they choose the side that moves closer to the essence.
  • They put their own standard ahead of external recognition. A true craftsman tries to make something better even when no one notices. Because the standard is internal, they are not shaken by trends.

Craftsmanship in the Digital Age

It is easy to think craftsmanship belongs only to the world of handcraft, but it does not. The developer who carefully refines code line by line, the writer who rewrites a sentence again and again, the athlete who practices the same motion over and over — all of them are craftsmen of the digital age. The essence lies not in the kind of job but in the attitude.

When I write code, I try to recall this craftsman's mind. "Will I just make it work for now, or will I make code that is still clear when someone reads it six months from now?" The former is surface, the latter is essence. The craftsman's mind always chooses the latter. And those small choices accumulate into the unchanging asset of one person's skill and reputation.

In an era that praises speed as a virtue, the attitude of honing one thing for a lifetime may be the most radical choice of all. But as time passes, that steadfastness travels the farthest.

Starting with One Small Promise

If the craftsman's mind feels too grand, you can start with one very small promise: not skipping a single essential action each day, even if only for ten minutes. One algorithm problem, five English sentences, one paragraph of writing — anything works. What matters is not the size but the unbroken continuity.

I call this "the streak I never break." Once it breaks, it is hard to reconnect, but if it never breaks, it becomes an identity in itself: the identity of "a person who spends time on the essence every day." As James Clear says in Atomic Habits, the most powerful motivation comes not from outcomes but from identity. The person who keeps a small promise every day soon finds that the promise defines them.

A Self-Check Checklist

Look back at this week's choices and answer the following.

  • Did I spend more than half my time this week on essential capabilities?
  • When learning a new tool, did I also understand the basic principles it rests on?
  • Before an important decision, did I consider the perspective of my "self three years from now"?
  • Did I distinguish whether the trend I am chasing changes the essence or is a surface fashion?
  • Did I make at least one choice that looks like a short-term loss but is right in the long run?
  • In my quarterly review, did I confirm that essence time was not eroded?

If you can answer "yes" to four or more of these six, you are already living a life that follows the essence.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How can I tell what the essence is?

There is a simple test. Ask, "Did this matter ten years ago, and will it matter ten years from now?" If the answer is yes to both, it is close to the essence. If either answer is no, it is probably surface.

Q. Won't focusing on the essence leave me behind on change?

The opposite, in fact. People who deeply know the essence absorb new change faster. When the foundation is solid, whatever you build on top of it is stable.

Q. Should I ignore trends entirely?

No. Observe trends, but spend your energy judging whether each one is a paradigm shift that changes the essence or a surface fashion. Once you have judged, deeply absorb only the ones that change the essence.

Closing: An Anchored Ship Rocks but Does Not Drift

Ever since the day I stopped in front of that fifth framework, I changed my criterion for spending time. Whenever something new appears, I ask: "Is this surface or essence? Does it change the essence, or is it just a new expression of it?" That single question reshaped the direction of my learning and my life.

A life that follows the essence looks slow. It rarely puts you at the center of the conversation. But as time passes, what you have stacked on the essence compounds while what you have stacked on the surface evaporates. An anchored ship may rock in the waves, but it does not drift away.

If you are tired of chasing what changes, it is time to spend your hours on what does not. It is the slower path, but the surest one.

"The person who finds what does not change within change is the one who ends up handling change best."

References

  • Hardy, Benjamin. Be Your Future Self Now. Hay House, 2022.
  • Clear, James. Atomic Habits. Avery, 2018. jamesclear.com
  • Stone, Brad. The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. Little, Brown, 2013.
  • "First Principles: The Building Blocks of True Knowledge", Farnam Street. fs.blog
  • "How to Think for Yourself", Paul Graham. paulgraham.com
  • Hersfield, H. E. et al. "Increasing saving behavior through age-progressed renderings of the future self." Journal of Marketing Research, 2011. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  • "The Explainer: Disruptive Innovation", Harvard Business Review. hbr.org
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