[Book Review] Jo Seok - Today, Heart Voice:

I was glad to read an essay by Jo Seok, a cartoonist I like. Jo Seok’s Heart Voice is one of my favorite comics. What Jo Seok has kept up every day for more than ten years may not have been just a deadline, but perhaps a desperate effort not to damage himself. The book is not about the artist’s great success story, but rather a comforting message that the time spent enduring, even just by pretending, is what ultimately makes me who I am.

He says you do not need to be born with everything, nor do you need to have everything. The insight that if you diligently keep doing the work, even just pretending to love it very much, that fake thing eventually becomes part of your bones and flesh and takes root as your essence, is truly brutally human. Rather than spending time blaming yourself for not having a burning flame inside, it may be better to simply stay there while pretending to love it; that deceptive sincerity may be the most honest effort we can offer the world.

As we live, we keep trying to repair ourselves in the face of misfortune that comes without warning. We blame our shortcomings and tear ourselves apart, but Jo Seok draws a firm line. He warns that bad things simply happen, and the moment we attribute them to ourselves, the unique patterns that made us who we are are erased. The best way to protect myself in the face of misfortune is, instead, to become plain and unadorned. When I hit a wall I cannot overcome, the moment the answer “if it doesn’t work out, then so be it” flashes through my mind, that feeling is like the greatest reward the world can give us.

The saying that I should be wary of someone who is kind to me when they have done nothing for me is the minimum line of defense for preserving myself completely. Distinguishing between goodwill fascinated by my usefulness rather than by my existence itself—that is the sad wisdom and survival skill of an adult.

Lastly, he credits his achievement to luck, saying it was thanks to the “Park seed” dropped by a bird flying overhead. It is an admission that it was not because I was especially capable, but because I simply held my ground and endured, and in doing so happened to choose the perfect position where luck could settle. But he does not stop there; he adds that if luck is going to come in any case, it is ultimately better to widen your vessel in advance so it does not spill over.

In the end, life is not a struggle to become something extraordinary, but a process of quietly polishing my vessel and enduring for the sake of luck that may arrive at any time. Rather than lamenting that I was not born with it, I should gladly start pretending to make the effort; I should not lose myself to the misfortune that arrives, and I should humbly widen my vessel in the face of the good fortune that comes. For all of us enduring each day like that, Jo Seok’s words say that even as they are now, we are already convincing enough.

Today, Heart Voice

Jo Seok 2026 Woongjin ThinkBig

Excerpts from the text

• You do not need to be born with everything from the start, nor do you need to have everything. If you work hard even just by pretending to work hard, pretending to love the work very much, then that becomes your essence.

• The feeling that it is worth trying until the answer “if it doesn’t work out, then so be it” enters my mind, and the feeling of becoming plain and unadorned when I run into a wall I cannot overcome and feel helpless—that feeling is like a reward given to me by the world.

• Most bad things just happen. The moment you choose to endure that time instead of blaming it on yourself, or think that you can change it, you end up erasing for yourself who you were, how convincing a person you were, and what you liked.

• Even when bad things happen, if I treat them as my fault and keep trying to remake myself, I end up changing everything that made me who I am.

• Someone who is kind to me before I have even started making any effort is not necessarily someone who fell for my appearance, was captivated by my brilliant talent, or was moved by my good personality; they may simply have something they want to take from me.

• A person who is kind to me when I have done nothing for them is someone to be wary of.

• There is a reason I did not deliberately reveal the years gone by.

• The reason is that when things go well, it does not feel like they went well because I did it all by myself. Anyone who has experienced success knows this. It was not just because I did well on my own. First there was me, then the timing was right, the placement was perfect, someone happened to pass by there, and at that moment luck had a good day and a bird flying overhead dropped the park seed it was carrying in its beak... In any case, it was not because I was exceptional; things in the world just worked out that way. In that flow, all I really did was endure. Maybe that is why, when I see people who say, “I’m really amazing” or “I’m so outstanding,” I think to myself, “That’s a lie.”

• In the end, if that thing comes into your hands but your vessel is not large enough, it will spill all around you anyway, so it is ultimately better to widen your vessel first.