Description Sense isn't a flash of brilliant inspiration—it's something built through constant reflection and practice. Whenever he's asked what "sense" really is and who counts as someone with good sense, Cho Su-yong begins by carefully retracing how he first started working and the mindset he brings to his craft. In this book, too, he names "ownership" as the first quality of a good work ethic, drawing on his own journey—starting out as a designer and gradually expanding into the role of planner and strategist. He explains that trust and decision-making authority build up over time not simply by diligently completing assigned tasks, but by wrestling with the client's (the owner's) concerns as intensely as if they were your own, and by speaking up and working through disagreements together when something doesn't make sense. While acknowledging that any organization inevitably runs on the owner's decisions, the author quietly makes the case that finding enjoyment and growth within that structure requires taking "ownership" as though you were the owner of your own work. Ownership, he argues, is really a form of deep empathy—one that extends to colleagues and customers alike, making work flow more smoothly. When he founded JOH, he organized the company not by job title but by director-led teams working collaboratively on projects, encouraging every employee to take ownership of their work. "If you're a salaried employee, it's only natural to think, 'This isn't my company, so why bother with ownership?' But I believe that mindset drains the joy out of work and, in the end, only makes the long road longer. Not only will your company start seeing you as someone who works exactly as much as their paycheck demands—you'll also become someone who simply does what they're told and waits for permission. Is that really good for you?" —from the book Cho Su-yong also believes that sense, often assumed to be an innate talent, actually stems from mindset. Sense that begins with "the effort to genuinely like something" is refined as you dig deeply into your own tastes while thoughtfully weaving in other people's perspectives. The author writes concretely about how to sharpen this sense, sharing his own habit of thoroughly researching everything from high-end to professional to entry-level options—even something as simple as buying a bicycle—by reading community posts and magazines to build up knowledge. He offers this as a real, practical order of operations for "digging into" your own taste, something readers can actually apply to cultivate their own sense. A sense this carefully trained also connects to the ability to choose well—to discern what to keep and what to let go. The capacity to judge what truly matters, without being swept up by others' opinions or passing trends, and to add or subtract accordingly, is closely tied to the sense required in branding. "For something to succeed, you have to go one step beyond your own personal taste. You need to find that delicate point where your own preferences meet empathy for others—the exact spot where the pull between the two can be felt. It's the point where your taste meets the taste of the world." —from the book "Nothing in the world is simply 'the way it is.'" Branding means uncovering the essence of something, and returning to that essence is the very heart of sense. People who do great work and have great sense are, in the end, people who keep asking about essence. The ownership, sense, design, and branding that Cho Su-yong discusses all circle back to this same core idea. Without thinking about essence, branding efforts easily become a scramble to chase trends, focusing only on surface packaging. So how do you get at the essence of something? The author suggests asking questions from a place of plain common sense. When you question things based on basic common sense—rather than being led by assumptions—you start noticing problems that would otherwise go unseen. And when you refuse to dismiss them as "that's just how it is" and instead try to solve them, truly inspired ideas are born. The author points to examples like the Green Factory parking garage, where floor numbers were made memorable through sound, or Samsung Card, designed around the core function of "spending"—both cases where seemingly innovative ideas were, in fact, the result of focusing on essence. "Nothing in the world is simply 'the way it is.' Whether you're looking at a piece of bread or a building in the city, you should always keep asking why. Returning to the essence—that is the very heart of sense."