2023: Aspects of Early Discovery (Series) and Beyond

Oliver Ding

Published in

TALE500

11 min readJan 1, 2024

Four possible books for knowledge creators and other three possible books

The above diagram shows a knowledge framework and four possible books.

The primary theme behind the diagram is “Early Discovery” which was born in June 2023.

Strategic Thematic Exploration and Conceptual Elaboration are two phases of EARLY DISCOVERY of the journey of Knowledge Engagement. See the diagram below.

The further phase is Continuous Objectification which aims to turn a concept system into real things.

This framework was developed for developing the Strategic Thematic Exploration framework. It also made a roadmap for writing a series of possible books.

The picture is a screenshot of a local folder on my computer.

The theme of “Early Discovery” framed my creative journey in 2023!

1. Thematic Exploration

On Jan 1, 2023, I launched TALE (Thematic Analysis Learning Engagement) as a new knowledge center to host the Thematic Engagement project.

From Jan 2023 to June 2023, TALE developed a series of tools for thematic creativity and thematic curativity. On June 23, 2023, I edited a possible book (draft) titled Thematic Exploration: The Early Discovery of Knowledge Engagement (book, v1).

I use “Strategic Thematic Exploration” to frame a creative space for exploring the strategic intent with the thematic analysis methods, especially for knowledge engagement.

I consider “From Theme to Framework” as a significant early phase for the journey of knowledge engagement. There are six stages in the phase.

A Possible Theme without Clue
A Possible Theme with Clue
A Primary Theme without related themes
A Primary Theme with its network
A Knowledge Concept with a working definition
A Knowledge Framework with a set of concepts

Since a set of concepts forms a knowledge framework, I also use Spontaneous Concept System to refer to the early version of a knowledge framework.

2. Mental Moves

On March 10, I wrote a post titled [Knowledge Engagement] How to develop a concept called “Attachance”? on Linkedin. To highlight this significant insight, I made a new possible theme called “Mental Moves”.

I used Knowledge Discovery Canvas to frame a knowledge project to curate more examples about “Moving between Thematic Spaces” and edit a possible book titled Mental Moves: The Attachances of Moving Mental Elements.

My original goal is to collect more examples about “Moving between Thematic Spaces” and edit a book as an archive. Later, I started working on case studies one by one.

On August 1, 2023, I edited a book titled Mental Moves: The Attachance Approach to Ecological Creative Cognition and closed the project.

3. Grasping the Concept

On August 21, 2023, I made a possible theme called “The Territory of Concepts” which refers to the phase of Conceptual Elaboration.

I use “The Territory of Concepts” to refer to the subjective experience of objectification of concepts. It means we should make some real objects of concepts.

In the rocess of Objectification, we, as the makers of these objects, will earn the subjective experience such as feedback from others, reflection on mistakes, excited moments, thematic conversations, capturing significant insights, comparing two concept systems, testing an object, expanding a concept system, moving between concept systems, etc.

The Territory of Concepts can be seen as a Subjective Reality. We, as the developers of a concept system, only can see this Subjective Reality and use it to help us elaborate the Spontaneous Concept System.

From August 21 to Nov 26, I worked on the “Territory of Concepts” project. On Nov 29, 2023, I edited a possible book titled Grasping the Concept: The Territory of Concepts and Concept Dynamics and closed the project and several related projects.

One major outcome of the book is the Landscape of Evolving Concept System. See the diagram below.

I used “Spontaneous Concept System/Defined Concept System/Scientific Concept System” to explain three parts of an Evolving Concept System.

Mental Platform: How do you think?
Behavioral Network: How do you do?
Material Container: What do you make?

It means the process of Developing A Concept System is not only about Thinking, but also about Doing, Saying, and Making.

4. Social Moves

Following the Mental Moves knowledge project, I started the “Social Moves” knowledge project on August 24, 2023.

If we put “Mental Moves” and “Social Moves” together, we see a new unit of analysis of Social Cognition. While “Social Moves” are about Social Actions, “Mental Moves” are about related Mental Activities.

Social Cognition = Social Moves (Mental Moves)

Both “Mental Moves” and “Social Moves” shared the concept of “Thematic Space” and the concept of “Attachance”.

From Oct 2023 to Dec 2023, I developed an integrated ecological approach to social cognition.

It was formed by two sub-frameworks: the Ecological Formism framework and the Ecological Actualism framework.

On Dec 19, 2023, I edited a possible book titled Social Moves: The Attachance Approach to Social Cognition.

The Social Moves framework is a general framework for understanding social cognition. It was not developed for the Evolving Concept System.

However, knowledge creators’ creative work activities are a specific type of social activity. The Social Moves framework can be understood as the Context of the Evolving Concept System and the Early Discovery phase.

5. Aspects of Creative Life (2022, Updated)

In 2022, I also wrote four possible books for knowledge creators. It was called the series of Aspects of Creative Life. See the diagram below.

My primary interest is located in the intersection between Knowledge, Creativity, and Adult Development. I roughly use Creative Life to name this focus.

I don’t want to develop a general framework about adult development for everyone. I only consider Knowledge Workers and Creators as my target audience.

The series of “Aspects of Creative Life” offers a large framework with five units of analysis for understanding knowledge creators’ life activities and events.

In 2023, I worked on the Creative Life Theory (v2) which aims to develop a meta-framework to support the above multiple units of analysis. I also used the meta-framework to guide the Knowledge Engagement project.

The “Building A Knowledge Enterprise” activity is a sub-project of the Knowledge Engagement project. From May 2022 to Sept 2023, I worked on developing the concept of “Knowledge Center” which is a core idea of the “Building A Knowledge Enterprise” activity.

On Oct 6, 2023, I edited a possible book titled Creative Life Theory: Building A Knowledge Enterprise (v2.0).

The new possible book introduces the meta-framework of the Creative Life Theory (v2) and collects ideas about the “Building A Knowledge Enterprise” activity, such as “Knowledge Discovery”, “Knowledge Center”, “Creative Dialogue”, “Value Circle”, etc.

On Dec 31, 2023, I also edited a possible book (draft) about the concept of Developmental Projects.

The book is about the significant unit of analysis of creative life because the unit of analysis “Projects” connects to “Actions” and “Journey/Landscape/Lifescope”.

6. Beyond Knowledge Engagement

Most of my creative work in 2023 is about Knowledge Engagement. However, I also touched the field of Product Engagement in some projects.

Both Knowledge Engagement and Product Engagement share the same pattern of developing a concept system. However, they have different complexities in the stage of Continuous Objectification.

For a theorist, the Objectification of Concepts is very simple. He/she only needs to write a book! However, for a startup founder, the Objectification of Concepts is quite complicated because he/she needs to build a team and make a real product or a service.

On March 2, 2023, I edited a book (draft) titled Perspectives on Product Engagement (v1.0).

In April 2023, I worked on the following two projects.

A Strategic Design Research project about a web3 platform.
A Creative Life Study project about Ping-keung Lui’s theoretical sociology.

I used the web3 platform as an example of “Spontaneous Concept System”. Later, the idea inspired me to the Platform Ecology (v3.1) framework and the Landscape of An Evolving Concept System.

7. The Art of Early Discovery

I used the following four terms to discuss the art of Early Discovery.

Thematic Creativity
Thematic Curativity
Moves
Thematic Spaces

Thematic Engagement refers to the “Person — Theme” relationship and interaction.

Anthropologist Morris Opler (1945) developed a theoretical concept called “cultural themes” for studying culture. Career counseling therapists and psychologists also developed a theoretical concept called “life themes”. From the perspective of innovation, I consider Themes as a sign of Trends in social life and individual life.

There are two types of themes. While Established Themes refer to normal practices, Emerging Themes refer to possible practices.

The process of Thematic Exploration is not a short-term immediate experience such as a workshop. I used the metaphor Workfield to refer to a long-term creative space. We can see it in two types of containers:

Abstract Container: a thematic space which is a large cognitive space about a particular theme
Concrete Container: a project with related actions and tools such as digital platforms.

For the Strategic Thematic Exploration framework, I made a distinction between “Theme” and “Concept”. While “Theme” emphasizes subjective experience and understanding, “Concept” is more about objective meaning and definition.

My notion of “Theme” is similar to Spontaneous Concepts. Developmental psychologists use Spontaneous Concepts to discuss the development of a child’s cognitive structure and skills.

I used a distinction between Spontaneous Concept System and Defined Concept System.

The Spontaneous Concept System is based on a person’s subjective experience with a thing while the Defined Concept System is based on the verbal definition of the thing.

A Spontaneous Concept System can be seen as a Theme Network since both emphasize the personal subjective experience and the genetic historical development of the system/network.

In contrast, a Defined Concept System looks like a formal concept network that emphasizes semantic consistency.

As mentioned above, I considered Strategic Thematic Exploration and Conceptual Elaboration as two phases of EARLY DISCOVERY of the journey of knowledge Engagement.

The next phase of the journey of knowledge engagement is Conceptual Elaboration which aims to turn a Spontaneous Concept System into a Defined Concept System or a Scientific Concept System.

In the phase of Conceptual Elaboration, there are four critical challenges.

Internal Integration: curate our pieces of ideas into a meaningful conceptual framework or concept system, understand the Part — Whole relationship
External Alignment: compare our ideas with other ideas, understand the Collaboration — Competition relationship
Cultural Projection: match our ideas with cultural needs, understand the Means-End relationship
Deep Sensemaking: deal with the Mindset-Meaning relationship.

My approach to “Concepts” and “Cognition” was inspired by Ecological Psychology, Activity Theory, and Lui’s Theoretical Sociology. The “Territory of Concepts” project started with the creative dialogue between three approaches. This refers to the Internal Integration challenge of my project on Themes and Concepts.

The Big Book of Concepts is about the perspective of Cognitive Psychology. So, my action of reading the book is related to the External Alignment challenge of my project on Themes and Concepts.

How about the Cultural Projection challenge?

From Sept 9, 2023, to Nov 20, 2023, I worked on a case study about the concept of “Mindset” in the field of psychological knowledge engagement. A by-product of the case study is the “Grasping the Concept” model. See the diagram below.

The above diagram highlights four types of thematic spaces which refer to four sociocultural areas.

Theoretical Psychologists — The THEORY thematic space
Empirical Psychologists — The END thematic space
Intervenors — The MEANS thematic space
Actors — The PRACTICE thematic space

This is an answer to the Cultural Projection challenge.

In a given field such as psychological knowledge engagement, there are four major sociocultural areas. Each area has its logic of the Means-End relationship.

Theoretical Development -> Setting the Term
Empirical Research -> Bounding the Case
Intervention and Curation -> Capturing the Theme
Life Reflection -> Weaving the Mind

All three challenges are related to a deep issue: the Mindset — Meaning relationship.

So, we need to pay attention to the following issues in the phase of Conceptual Elaboration:

The Part-Whole relationship
The Collaboration — Competition relationship
The Means-End relationship
The Mindset — Meaning relationship

After Early Discovery, what should we do?

I roughly used “Continuous Objectification” to describe the stage after Early Discovery. This is more about Social Cognition which is the primary theme of Social Moves: The Attachance Approach to Social Cognition.