I studied this idea extensively while getting my master's in Chinese lit. While I think this article is interesting, in my opinion it kind of misses the point a

I studied this idea extensively while getting my master's in Chinese lit. While I think this article is interesting, in my opinion it kind of misses the point about wu-wei. Many Chinese texts admonish total focus and dedication to a task. The idea is that if you obsess over developing some skill for a long time you will eventually be able to do it without thinking, and when that happens your creative impulses will guide you instead of your thoughts. For example after coding a lot you stop worrying about syntax and can consider design principles instead. It's not that Pao Ding was a master of meditation, it's just that he spent his whole life cutting up oxen. When that author says "We have been taught to believe that the best way to achieve our goals is to reason about them carefully and strive consciously to reach them. But Butcher Ding’s story—and the science that’s beginning to back it up—shows us that many desirable states are best pursued indirectly." I think he's setting up a false opposition: the road to unconscious mastery is paved with relentless conscious effort and lots of careful reasoning.