The Book

Zen and the Art of [nothing] is a book about philosophy, business, and the stories we tell ourselves. It was written by John Zdanowski and Jeff Abrams and published by CoAuthor.one in 2024.

It celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values and applies the Metaphysics of Quality to how we see our lives, our minds, and our businesses.

What It Is

Fifteen chapters and about twenty poems. The book walks from first principles — what is good? what is a philosophy? — through how we know what we know, the nature of consciousness, how language shapes perception, Pirsig’s four levels of quality, how ideas spread, the religion of startups, and the Boot Sequence — before arriving at the story of Weekly Accounting and the Fourth Statement.

It is Not-a-Book. The physical copy contains blank pages. The [nothing] in the title is a placeholder for your art.

What It Is Not

It is not a business manual, though it contains one chapter on business. It is not a self-help book, though it might help. It is not a bible, though it has an ethos and gardening tips in the appendix.

It is book zero of an infinite series.

Where to Read It

The full text is available free at weeklyaccounting.com/fullbook.

The Poems

The book contains about twenty poems woven through the chapters — each illustrating a concept in verse. They range from the pointlessness of life in the machine (“Birth, School, Work, Death”) to the system that replaces it (“The Intention and the System”).

Dedication

For our children — Caroline, Jack, Celia, Luke, Mila, Levi & Jake — their children, and so on.

To soften your relationship with the stories you’ve heard. To strengthen your relationship with the stories you tell.

The Next Book

Zen and the Art of Weekly Accounting (Book 2) explores the business application in depth — the Fourth Statement, the Contribution Engine, the IFM, and the system that delivers 52 feedback loops per year instead of 12.