TALE: A Possible Theme called “Founder as Curator”

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TALE500

17 min readFeb 25, 2023

How does a Founder develop his/her mind, tacit knowledge, and creative life?

In the past two weeks, I worked on a new series of possible themes to connect my theoretical approaches with Product-centered Business Development.

Today I will discuss a new possible theme called “Founder as Curator”.

Name: Founder as Curator
Clue: Turning Pieces into A Meaningful Whole
Question: How does a Founder develop his/her mind, tacit knowledge, and creative life?
Type: knowledge theme
Contributor:
Reference: Michael Poter: What Is Strategy? (1996), The Curated Mind

This theme is associated with Mind, Tacit Knowledge, and Creative Life. I will introduce some related frameworks too.

Product-centered Business Development

Business is a large field of social practice, I only focus on Product-centered Business Development activity.

It is more about Startups, Founders, Products, User Experience, Design, Creativity, Ideas, etc. It is less about Enterprise, Management, Venture Capital (VC), Initial Public Offering (IPO), Merger and Acquisition (M&A), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), etc.

These two are two different worlds.

In fact, I worked in the second world from 2001 to 2008. I have over twenty years of work experience which can be divided into three stages: the creative stage, the strategic stage, and the innovative stage. During the creative stage (before 2001), I worked for the advertising and media industry as a creative copywriter and designer. At the strategic stage (from 2001 to 2008), I worked for pre-IPO stage enterprises as a business strategist and fundraising consultant. At the innovative stage (after 2008), I worked on making brand-new digital tools and platforms as a researcher and designer.

Before 2014, I spent most of my spare time on digital nonprofit communities as a digital activist. From 2014 to 2015, I transformed my focus from nonprofit activities to theoretical learning. Since then, I have been spending most of my spare time learning ecological psychology, creativity research, and other related subjects.

2014–2020: Ecological Psychology and Creativity Research
2014–2018: Action Science, Activity Theory, and Cognitive Science
2018–2019: Practice Theory, HCI, Strategy and Work
2020: Social Theory, Social Media, Information Systems and Platform

The journey of connecting THEORY and PRACTICE is so amazing! Eventually, I wrote 18 books (drafts) from 2018 to 2022.

This year, I decided to return to the field of business. The Series “Product Engagement” is the new beginning.

The above themes are about Business, Products, and Ideas. Today I am going to discuss a new possible theme about Founders.

Michael Porter: The Strategic Fit

The theme of “Founder as Curator” is inspired by Michael Porter‘s notion of “Strategic Fit”. In 1996, Porter published What is strategy? on Harvard Business Review and introduced the notion of “Fit” for strategic thinking.

Positioning choices determine not only which activities a company will perform and how it will configure individual activities but also how activities relate to one another. While operational effectiveness is about achieving excellence in individual activities, or functions, strategy is about combining activities. (p.58)

Porter made a clear distinction between operational effectiveness and strategy. While the former is about individual activities, the latter is about the whole activity system. He also developed a visual method to represent the notion of “Strategic Fit” within a business activity system. The diagram below is the Activity System of Southwest Airlines.

Porter rejected the concept of “core competence” and emphasized the wholeness of the business activity system.

What is Southwest’s core competence? Its key success factors? The correct answer is that everything matters. Southwest’s strategy involves a whole system of activities, not a collection of parts. Its competitive advantage comes from the way its activities fit and reinforce one another.

According to Porter, there are three types of Fit. In all three types of fit, the whole matters more than any individual part.

First-order fit is simple consistency between each activity (function) and the overall strategy
Second-order fit occurs when activities are reinforcing.
Third-order fit goes beyond activity reinforcement to what I call optimization of effort.

We have to notice that Porter didn’t use “fit” to describe the match between two sides such as the “Product — Market” Fit. In fact, both “fit” are metaphorical words.

In 2019, I wrote a book titled Curativity and introduced a new theory about general curation. I coined the new term Curativity and used it to refer to “turning pieces into a meaningful whole”.

It’s clear that we can use Curativity Theory to understand Porter’s Activity System and use Strategic Curation to refer to Strategic Fit. You can find more details in Curativity Theory: The Ecological Approach to General Curation Practice.

In this way, we can claim that a founder is a curator of a business activity system. Moreover, we can also apply Curativity Theory to many sections of Founders’ life. In the past several years, I have been applying it to many fields.

Knowledge Curation
Career Curation
Creative Life Curation
Thematic Curation

A founder is the curator of his/her mind.

A founder is the curator of his/her tacit knowledge.

A founder is the curator of his/her creative life.

The Curator of Mind

The term “System I/System II” of Mind is introduced to business thinkers by Daniel Kahneman’s 2011 book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Keith Stanovich and his co-workers developed a tripartite theory of mind which introduces three types of mind: Autonomous mind, Algorithmic mind, and Reflective Mind.

Both Daniel Kahneman and Keith Stanovich emphasize the “right mind”. While Daniel Kahneman considers heuristics in judgment and decision-making and cognitive bias, Keith Stanovich cares about installing the right mideware in the right way.

Other cognitive psychologists have different views on heuristics. For example, Gerd Gigerenzer developed the concept of “Ecological Rationality” and emphasized the ecological aspect of Intelligence.

The key point of Gerd Gigerenzer’s account is the fit between the structure of our environment and simple heuristics.

This leads to two challenges: 1) the issue of ecological mindset because we have to understand the structure of our environment, and 2) the issue of knowledge curation because we have to choose suitable knowledge heuristics for the present situation.

In March 2022, I started working on a new model called the Curated Mind in order to respond to the above two challenges. However, I didn’t pay attention to Intelligence and Rationality from the perspective of cognitive psychology.

The Curated Mind is more about ecological — cultural psychology which goes beyond the individual trait of the mind. Its primary focus is the person — context interaction and its impact on the mind.

The above diagram is the model of the Curated Mind which is defined as an Anticipatory Activity System. As a system, the Curated Mind has two parts: Proximal Mind and Pervasive Mind.

This model adopted the ecological approach to reflect on the Mind. While Proximal Mind corresponds to Proximal Contexts, Pervasive Mind corresponds to Pervasive Mind.

Proximal Contexts (Proximal Mind)
Pervasive Contexts (Pervasive Mind)

To achieve the Curated Mind, a person has to curate the following dimensions:

Near — Far
Self — Other
Present — Future
Thing — Think
etc.

I also pay attention to the following three types of Curativity:

The Curativity of Proximal Mind: Turning pieces of experiences into a meaningful whole at the loop of Proximal Mind.
The Curativity of Pervasive Mind: Turning pieces of experiences into a meaningful whole at the loop of Pervasive Mind.
The Curativity of Mind: Turning “Proximal Mind” and “Pervasive Mind” into a meaningful whole.

From the perspective of the Ecological Practice approach, I use Context(Mind) as the primary unit of analysis to develop the model of the Curated Mind. The above other dimensions can be considered secondary dimensions.

I also used eight operational concepts to expand the basic model of the Curated Mind. The loop of Proximal Mind is represented by the following four operational concepts:

Occurrence: It refers to the “Natural Situation” which means non-designed situations and environments.
Intervention: It refers to the “Artificial Situation” which means designed situations and environments.
Mediation: It refers to the “Mediating Instrument” which means material objects and other tools for human activities and social practices.
Narrative: It refers to the “Actual Narrative” which means storytelling.

I also use the following four operational concepts for the loop of the Pervasive Mind:

Significance: It refers to “Cultural Significance” which means the dynamic historical development of cultural signs and other symbolic cultures.
Representation: It refers to “Cognitive Representation” which means objects for solving cognitive tasks. For example, Diagrams, models, theories, floor plans, etc.
Imagination: It refers to imagining some novel things that could guide dramatic experiences and creative actions.
Anticipation: It refers to predicting the future and managing the complexity of anticipation and performance.

Though I offer the above eight operational concepts for understanding the Curated Mind, It doesn’t mean that the Curated Mind is only about these ideas.

You can find more details in #TalkThree 09: The Art of Intelligence or Mind, The Curated Mind, and The Model of Curated Mind.

The Curator of Tacit Knowledge

One year ago, I developed a model for Developing Tacit Knowledge.

The above diagram is also called the “Flow — Story — Model” metaphor. Though the original title is called the Context of Developing Tacit Knowledge, I think it should be my new model of the mind or cognition.

Flow: Life as a continuous flow
Story: Project as a film with a prominent theme
Model: all knowledge frameworks and models as floor plans

The “Flow — Story — Model” metaphor is inspired by James G. March (1928–2018) who was an American political scientist, sociologist, and pioneer of organizational decision-making. He mentioned that there are three types of wisdom in his 2010 book The Ambiguities of Experience.

What are the three types of wisdom?

Models: a model is an abstract cognitive representation.
Stories: a story is a model too, but it is easy to understand.
Actions: you just do it, then you get it.

What March suggested roughly echoes three types of social sciences.

Models: Explanation (such as Systems and Rational Choices)
Stories: Understanding (such as Culture and Subjective meanings)
Actions: Intervention (Such as Critical theory and Action Science)

There are some techniques behind the metaphor. See the diagrams below.

Life is a continuous flow, a researcher could see many things and events in a particular situation. However, she has to perceive significant and relevant things and events. She has to discover Similarities and Differences from the continuous flow and defines some perceived facts as data.

For example, we can record an online meeting. However, the video is not the data, but the raw material for making data for a research project. The researcher has to watch the video again and again until she can perceive some data.

For ordinary people, this process is called Ecological Awareness. Ordinary people don’t often intend to run research projects in their real-life world, they tend to miss significant opportunities to perceive important facts and generate useful insights.

Ecological Awareness requires paying attention to tiny changes in the environment anytime anywhere. It takes effect to do this job in the everyday life world.

This one is about turning concrete data into abstract ideas such as concepts and models. If you read my articles, you probably find that I often develop a model from one case study. Yes, one story can be a sample for building a model if you can find Significant Invariants and Variants from the deep structure of the story.

This one is about a specific situation: interpersonal interaction. In fact, you can find more ideas in ARCH: A Visual Language of Interpersonal Interactions and Collaborative Project Engagement.

This one is inspired by Activity Theory. You can find more case studies in Mapping Thematic Journey (Engaging with Activity Theory, 2020–2022).

This one is about Discourse from the perspective of Thematic Engagement, especially “Themes” and “Concepts”. You can find more related tools in The Thematic Engagement Toolkit (v1.0).

This one is about Imagination and Anticipation. I am working on a related framework called Anticipatory Activity System (AAS).

Moreover, I mentioned two roles in the above discussion: Researchers and Ordinary people. They have different intentions, resources, and skills.

In order to respect these differences, I encourage you to pay attention to Methodological Empathy. See the diagram below.

The above diagram is called the HITED framework. It is about the way of knowing. For philosophists, the way of knowing refers to the subject of epistemology. For scientists, the way of knowing refers to the subject of methodology.

There are various approaches to the Hypothesis — Data Fit! The HITED framework is a new visual language for making methodological issues visible. We need to see the difference between scientists and practitioners. We also need to see the difference between you as a practitioner and me as a practitioner.

The Founder needs to consider both the Theory — Practice fit and the Hypothesis — Data fit. You can find more details in The HITED Framework for Methodological Empathy.

The Curator of Creative Life

In 2022, I developed a systematic theoretical framework for understanding Creative Life. It was presented in the series Aspects of Creative Life.

In the past 12 months, I developed a new structure of units of analysis:

1. Creative Actions
2. Creative Projects
3. Creative Journey
4. Creative Life

I also mentioned these four units of analysis in the following possible books:

1. Ecological Practice Design > Creative Actions
2. Project Engagement > Creative Projects
3. Creative Life Curation > Creative Journeys
4. Advanced Life Strategy > Creative Life

Each book also introduces a theoretical framework.

Ecological Practice Design > The Lifesystem Framework
Project Engagement > The Developmental Project Model
Creative Life Curation > The Creative Life Curation Framework
Advanced Life Strategy > The Anticipatory Activity Framework

You can find more details in Creative Life Curation: Turning Experiences into Meaningful Achievements and Advanced Life Strategy: Anticipatory Activity System and Life Achievements.

These books introduce a set of knowledge frameworks for general discussion. In order to highlight some significant ideas for Founders, I made the following model.

The above diagram highlights two concepts: “Resources” and “Intention”.

Resources: It comes from the Past (Experiences). Your performance in the past projects made resources for the present projects.
Intention: It comes from the Future (Achievements). Your anticipation of life achievements determines your intention on running projects.

The above diagram highlights two concepts: “Reward” and “Result”.

Reward: It comes from Extrinsic Orientation (Achievements). How do others perceive and evaluate your achievements?
Result: It comes from Intrinsic Orientation (Experiences). How do you use your experiences to achieve perfect results?

In Advanced Life Strategy, I point out three types of complexities of life development:

The “Anticipatory ” Complexity is about the “Past-Present-Future” structure.
The “Performance” Complexity is about the “Competency — Challenge” structure.
The “Relevance” Complexity is about the “Self — Other” structure.

The above diagram highlights the “Past-Present-Future” structure. The other two can be found in the diagram following.

The “Competency — Challenge” structure is about the Activity which means things founds are doing. There are many theoretical approaches to understanding human activities and social practices in general. For the theme of “Founder as Curator”, I use the Project Engagement approach and the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework.

The “Self — Other” structure is about the “Relevance” Complexity which is based on the founders’ social interactions with others. The above diagram classifies four concepts into two categories:

Extrinsic Orientation: Reward and Resources
Intrinsic Orientation: Intention and Result

I don’t use “Extrinsic Determination” and “Intrinsic Determination” because I think these four concepts should be understood from both the Extrinsic side and the Intrinsic side. However, I want to emphasize the tendential difference between the two groups.

The diagram below is the core part of the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework. We can see the complexity behind the “Self, Other, Present, Future” structure.

You can find more details in The iART Framework and The “Relevance” Thematic Space.

Frame for Work

A creative Founder is a great Applied Knowledge Curator and Creative Life Curator.

While Applied Knowledge Curation is about making frames for work, Creative Life Curation is about making frames for life.

Today I am reading Henry Mintzberg’s 1998 book Strategy Safari which highlights several schools of strategic management.

I noticed he encouraged readers to build new frameworks with the following messages on p.219

There is also a good dose of vision in Prahalad and Hamel’s work, akin to the entrepreneurial school. In the final analysis, we are inclined to see the dynamic capabilities approach as a hybrid principally of the design and learning schools — if you like, a contemporary view of adaptive strategy as a process of conceptual design.
Of course, such a hybrid can begin to make a mess of the nice, neat categories of our ten schools. But we welcome such combinations, because they suggest that the field is becoming more sophisticated: growing beyond the categories of the past. As we build up to our last schools, we shall see a number of such hybrids of the earlier ones. We are pleased if the framework presented in this book can help the reader to see how newer approaches combine characteristics of the more established ones.

There are kinds of frameworks. Since Founders don’t work on producing public knowledge, they tend to work as Applied Knowledge Curators.

They build situational frameworks for their projects each time. They adopt ideas from different schools of thought and put these ideas into a meaningful whole for their work.

The diagram below is a sub-model of the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework. It was born from an empirical research project about a person’s one-year life transitions.

For Founders, each project is a Developmental Project in his/her creative life. The above diagram is called Modeling A Developmental Project.

It refers to how a founder thinks about a developmental project and builds a model for the project. In the process of running the project, how does she or he change thoughts and modify the model?

A model can be described with text only. Diagrams or other visual things are not necessary for modeling a project. However, if a person can use visual skills to express her or his mind, it would be great for discussing with others.

The model of a Developmental Project is a Situational Framework. You can find more details in CALL for LIFE: Modeling A Developmental Project, TALE: A Strategic Designer’s Creative Journey, and TALE: Possible Configurations of A Theme Network.

Frame for Life

The subtitle of Creative Life Curation is Turning Experiences into Meaningful Achievements.

According to Curativity Theory, we need a container to turn pieces into a meaningful whole.

We need a frame to frame life experiences.

I have developed a Creative Life Curation framework containing five analysis units.

1. Creative Actions
2. Creative Projects
3. Creative Journey
4. Creative Landscape
5. Creative Lifescope

The framework also highlights the following three types of “Curativity”:

Curativity 1: Turning pieces of Projects into a Journey as a meaningful whole
Curativity 2: Turning pieces of Projects into a Landscape as a meaningful whole
Curativity 3: Turning pieces of Actions and Projects into a Lifescope as a meaningful whole

It’s an open framework! You can find more details in Creative Life Curation: Turning Experiences into Meaningful Achievements.

If we can discover a new significant aspect of Creative Life and develop a corresponding method, we can add Curativity 4 and related keywords to the diagram.

Moreover, we can discover life themes during the process of life curation. This process is called Crystallize Thematically in the following model. You can find more details in Slow Cognition: The Creative Life Curation Framework.

In my creative journey, I coined a new term “Curativity” and wrote a 615-page book. This is my way of “Crystallize Thematically”.

However, the “Crystallize Thematically” movement doesn’t refer to writing a book or developing a new theory only. There are other ways of taking concrete actions of “Crystallize Thematically”.

A creative person can use existing words to name her/his life themes and she/he doesn’t have to write a book. For example, James Currier, a 5-time founder, named his venture capital firm NFX which stands for Network Effects.

Before becoming an investor, James learned Network Effects from his startup Tickle. According to his profile, “James was the co-founder and CEO of Tickle, one of the internet’s first successful user-generated companies. Tickle grew to the 18th largest website in the world with over 150 million registered users — before they were acquired in 2004 by Monster for $110 million. It was during this time that James realized the power of network effects as the core growth driver of both B2B and B2C successes across every vertical.”

In 2017, James found NFX Capital and worked on studying and sharing knowledge about Network Effects. In May 2018, he released the Network Effects Bible.

In October 2022, he launched the Network Effects Masterclass which offers 11 episodes for free.

James’ story is about the theme of “Network Effects” which refers to a significant mechanism of fast-growing startups. In the past 20 years, he went through the whole process of the Life Curation Framework.