Professor Yoo Young-man from the Department of Educational Technology was honored as the ‘Person of the Year in Korea’ in the Individual category at the ‘2025 Brand of the Year Awards’ hosted by the Korea Consumer Brand Institute.

Professor Yoo expressed, “I am deeply grateful and pleased to be recognized by consumers after branding myself for 30 years as a knowledge ecologist. I hope to be a small line of hope to many who quietly fulfill their callings and walk toward the purpose of life in their own fields.”

The award ceremony selected recipients through consumer votes across four Asian countries: Korea, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Professor Yoo noted, “The translation and publication of my books in Indonesia and Taiwan have positively contributed to expanding overseas recognition.” He added, “Adding English subtitles to my YouTube videos likely had an effect as well,” explaining that “videos on the ‘Knowledge Inside’ YouTube channel featuring myself have surpassed ten million views.”

Embracing an ecological perspective on exploring principles of knowledge creation, Professor Yoo as a human brand identifies the core issue: “Knowledge can never be separated from people.” He explained, “Like a mother’s secret kimchi recipe, key knowledge can only be learned through long, hands-on experience, and such knowledge is called the ‘tacit knowledge.’”

He also draws inspiration from natural ecosystems. “Just as plants and animals coexist in forests in their own ways, organizations can develop virtuous cycles when human interventions are minimized,” he said, noting that these philosophies shaped his books Knowledge Ecology and Trees Are Not Merely Trees.

토토사이트 대공원 Yoo's 100th book Conatus gained attention by offering ways to find ‘inner strength’ for those tired of repetitive self-improvement processes, modernizing Spinoza’s philosophy. He began writing out questions such as, “Why do I feel stuck despite achievements?” and “Why is my growth chart absent on others’ success charts?”

Professor Yoo emphasized, “Success is not guaranteed by simply following someone else’s path,” warning that “benchmarking others’ success may yield results but trap you in emptiness without growth.”

Conatus stresses that choosing what makes your 토토사이트 대공원art race rat토토사이트 대공원r than what makes your legs tremble is t토토사이트 대공원 path to satisfying growth. Its philosophical critique of conventional self-development discourse gives it special significance.

Professor Yoo critiques contemporary education’s focus on online ‘connection experiences’ at the expense of multisensory ‘contact experiences.’ He remarked, “Wild cabbage tastes better and free-range chickens avoid disease due to their inherent ecological vitality,” adding, “Knowledge becomes healthy only when ecologically created and shared.” He underscored the need for ‘knowledge-ecological thinking’ that unites intellect and wildness, saying, “Intellect without wildness is boredom, and wildness without intellect is savagery.”

His brand philosophy is simple: branding is the process of proving distinctiveness through authenticity. He observed, “Many are born as originals but live as copies, comparing themselves with other originals.” He stated, “Being authentic is distinctiveness, and distinctiveness is beauty,” presenting ‘Authenticity = Distinctiveness = Beauty’ as the core of his branding philosophy.

Professor Yoo emphasizes the concept of ‘Unity of Knowledge and Action’ (지행합일), distancing from ‘Consistency of Knowledge and Action’(지행일치). He said, “Simply accumulating knowledge before acting does not lead to execution. True learning happens through the process of acting while learning and learning while acting.”

In 2012, he tested the saying “Never give up” during a 6-day, 7-night Sahara ultramarathon running 40 kilometers daily, but ended up exhausting himself. This experience led him to stress the importance of ‘Unity of Knowledge and Action’ where embodied learning beats conceptual knowledge that might be useless or dangerous in real life.

Currently, 토토사이트 대공원 Yoo is simultaneously writing his 103rd book Effective Communication in Adults and 104th book Power of Short Sentences. As he approaches his final research semester before retirement, he plans to embark on a ‘Humanities Cruise Tour’ to Alaska in October and the Western Mediterranean in January next year. He also mentioned plans to challenge the ascent of Lenin Peak, standing 7,134 meters tall, reaffirming his intent to live by his ‘Conatus List’ of finding life’s purpose.