Creative Life Theory (v2, book, 2023)
A Possible Book about Creative Life Theory (v2)
The above picture was designed for a possible book titled Creative Life Theory: Building A Knowledge Enterprise.
My primary interest is located in the intersection between Knowledge, Creativity, and Adult Development. I use Creative Life to name this focus.
It’s clear that 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 Creative Life Theory is a large knowledge enterprise that includes multiple units of analysis, a series of frameworks, and a set of tools. I also wrote several books about it.
In 2022, I worked on the Creative Life Theory (v1.0) which developed multiple units of analysis.
The outcome of the project is the series of “Aspects of Creative Life” including the following four books (drafts).
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.
The new possible book aims to introduce the meta-framework of the Creative Life Theory (v2) and collect ideas about the “Building A Knowledge Enterprise” activity, such as “Knowledge Discovery”, “Knowledge Center”, “Creative Dialogue”, “Value Circle”, etc.
It is divided into five parts and a large appendix. Some numbers about the possible book:
- 5 parts
- 14 chapters
- 94 articles
- Total 1,333 min read
- Total 353,245 words (about 706 single-spaced pages)
Part 1: The Introduction
Part 2: The Sandglass
Part 3: The Circle
Part 4: The Square
Part 5: The Engagement
Appendix
- The Path of Creative Life
- Engaging with Lui’s Theoretical Sociology
- Twenty-two Possible Books
Part 1: The Introduction
Inspired by Ferdinand de Saussure’s linguistic analysis, I use the Synchronic (static) view and the Diachronic (evolutionary) view to introduce the Creative Life Theory (v2).
The core of the Creative Life Theory (v2) is the Creative Course Framework and seven theoretical concepts. In order to present the Synchronic view, Chapter 1 uses the Knowledge Discovery Canvas to curate all kinds of ideas of the Creative Life Theory (v2) in one map.
Chapter 2 uses the Diachronic (evolutionary) view to reflect on the historical development of the Creative Life Theory. I roughly use the Creative Life Curation framework to frame three waves of development of the theory.
The Creative Life Theory has developed a set of tools for discussing creative life and knowledge engagement, I selected some tools to reflect on the landscape and the development of Creative Life Theory itself! You can find the following tools in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2:
- The Knowledge Discovery Canvas (Link)
- The Creative Life Curation Framework (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3)
- The ECHO Way (Link 1, Link 2)
- “Themes of Practice” (Link)
- “Kinds of Actors” (Link)
- “Persona Dynamics” (Link 1, Link 2)
- Thematic Scrapboard (Link)
I use a unique method to develop the Creative Life Theory because the mission of my own creative life is to connect THEORY and PRACTICE. I didn’t only work on developing theoretical concepts but also making tools for real-life practice.
Moreover, I often used these tools to reflect on my journey of developing Creative Life Theory and other knowledge projects. The insights I learned from these reflections also guided the new development of my knowledge projects.
In this way, I build a Self-referential Activity of connecting THEORY and PRACTICE.
Chapter 1: The Landscape of Creative Life Theory
- Part 1: The Landscape of Creative Life Theory (v2, 2023) (10 min)
- Part 2: The Creative Course Framework (7 min)
- Part 3: The Expanded Creative Course Framework (10 min)
- Part 4: The Hermeneutics of Creative Life (6 min)
Chapter 2: The Development of Creative Life Theory
- Part 1: First-wave Development (13 min)
- Part 2: Second-wave Development (9 min)
- Part 3: Third-wave Development (12 min)
- Part 4: Three Themes of a Journey of Theory Building (10 min)
- Part 5: Creative Dialogue and Mental Moves (28 min)
- Part 6: Four Perspectives and Creative Identities (12 min)
- Part 7: The World of Works and Five Possible Books (14 min)
Part 2: The Sandglass
The Sandglass refers to the S-T-O Tendency which is a core idea of the Creative Life Curation framework. It highlights three keywords of the framework:
- Subjectification: turning the world into a person’s experience
- Crystallize Thematically: discovering a match between individual life themes and collective cultural themes
- Objectification: turning the person’s experience into artifacts for the world
We can find more details and case studies about the Creative Life Curation framework in Chapter 3.
For the Knowledge Engagement project, the Knowledge Discovery Canvas is an important tool, I collect articles about it and case studies in Chapter 4.
In 2022, I worked on the Slow Cognition project and reflected on my journey of engaging with several theoretical approaches. You can find more details and case studies in Chapter 5.
Chapter 3: Creative Life Curation
- Part 1: The Creative Life Curation Framework (15 min)
- Part 2: The Activity U Project and Creative Life Curation (20 min)
- Part 3: The Development of “Project Engagement” (10 min)
Chapter 4: Knowledge Discovery
- Part 1: Three Canvases for Developing Tacit Knowledge (12 min)
- Part 2: How did I develop the “Product Engagement” Framework? (8 min)
- Part 3: A Possible Theme called “Mental Moves” (11 min)
- Part 4: The “Value Circle” Theme (Value Circle #1: From “Mental Moves” to “Value Circle”) (14 min)
- Part 5: The Ecological Practice Design Toolkit (V2, 2023)
Chapter 5: Slow Cognition
- Part 1: The Slow Cognition Project (Phase II): Activity Analysis for Creative Work Study (17 min)
- Part 2: The “5A” Slow Cognition Model (18 min)
- Part 3: How did I develop Curativity Theory? (28 min)
- Part 4: The Development of Ecological Practice Approach (15 min)
- Part 5: The Ecological Practice Approach in Feb 2020 (14 min)
- Part 6: The Development of AAS (August 21, 2021 — August 26, 2022) (17 min)
- Part 7: A Journey of Engaging with the Theme of “Themes” (2017–2023) (7 min)
Part 3: The Circle
The Circle refers to “Knowledge Center” which is the container of Knowledge Engagement. You can find more details in TALE: A Possible Theme called “Knowledge Center”.
For the Creative Life theory (v2.0) and the Knowledge Engagement project, a “Knowledge Center” is a Collaborative Project too.
From 2022 to 2023, I worked on developing the concept of “Knowkedge Center” and running several networked knowledge centers. You can find details of the journey in Chapter 6.
Creative Dialogue is a significant insight I discovered from the journey of developing a knowledge center. I found that I often run creative thematic conversations between two themes or approaches. Chapter 7 collects articles about the theme of Creative Dialogue.
Chapter 8 moves to an advanced theme of running a network of knowledge centers. I use “Value Circle” to name a three-level model: a network of themes, a network of projects, and a network of people.
Chapter 6: Knowledge Centers
- Part 1: A Possible Theme called “Knowledge Center” (14 min)
- Part 2: Activity Analysis: The Art of Continuous Discovery (18 min)
- Part 3: The “Center” Thematic Space (18 min)
- Part 4: How to Grow A Knowledge Enterprise (16 min)
- Part 5: The Movements of Unfolding Uniqueness (18 min)
- Part 6: The Launch Day of Curativity Center (7 min)
- Part 7: A Possible Theme called “Expansive Activity Analysis” (11 min)
- Part 8: TALE as A Thematic Transformation Hub (14 min)
Chapter 7: Creative Dialogue
- Part 1: The ECHO Way (v2.0) (15 min)
- Part 2: Theme U for Single-theory Curation (23 min)
- Part 3: WXMY for Interdisciplinary Curation (25 min)
- Part 4: Personal Innovation as Career-fit (22 min)
- Part 5: The “Activity — Opportunity” Thematic Dialogue (19 min)
- Part 6: The Echoes of A Thematic Dialogue (13 min)
- Part 7: The “Project — Platform” Creative Dialogue (Mental Moves #2: Creative Swapping of Mental Elements) (19 min)
- Part 8: The “Theoretical Sociology — Creative Life Theory” Creative Dialogue (Mental Moves #4: Attachance and Creative Dialogue) (14 min)
Chapter 8: Value Circle
- Part 1: A Possible Theme called “Value Circle” (7 min)
- Part 2: The Hierarchy of Knowledge Centers (19 min)
- Part 3: The Attachance of Rediscovery and Diagram Development (23 min)
- Part 4: Mental Models and the Attachance of Multiple Moves (18 min)
- Part 5: The ARCH of Synergy Effects (15 min)
- Part 6: Mapping Thematic Landscape (Curativity, 2019–2022) (17 min)
- Part 7: From “ARCH” to “Activity Circle” (20 min)
Part 4: The Square
The Square refers to “Lifescope, " also called “World of Activity”. I use it to define the boundary of a person’s creative space in his/her entire life. You can find more details in Lifescope: The World of Activity for Creative Life Curation.
Chapter 9: World of Activity
- Part 1: Lifescope: The World of Activity for Creative Life Curation (14 min)
- Part 2: Strategy as Anticipatory Activity System (16 min)
- Part 3: A Typology for Anticipatory Activity System (9 min)
- Part 4: Anticipatory Activity System for Life Transitions (7 min)
- Part 5: Modeling A Developmental Project (8 min)
- Part 6: A Five-space Model for Strategic Curation Activity (7 min)
- Part 7: HERO U — A New Framework for Knowledge Heroes (17 min)
Chapter 10: Universal Reference
- Part 1: A Typology of Knowledge Diagrams (v2, 2022) (18 min)
- Part 2: A Universal Reference for Knowledge Engagement (13 min)
- Part 3: A Possible Theme called “Life (Self)” (14 min)
- Part 4: A Possible Theme called “Theme (Concept)” (33 min)
- Part 5: The Concept of “Activity” (15 min)
Chapter 11: Meaning Matrix
- Part 1: Life, History, and Multiverse （16 min）
- Part 2: Creative Life Curation: Kinds of Actors (12 min)
- Part 3: Flow, Film, and Floor Plan (11 min)
- Part 4: Challenge as Opportunity (10 min)
- Part 5: One Project, Many Insights (8 min)
- Part 6: A 10-day Road Trip and Creative Life Curation (24 min)
- Part 7: The Microdynamics of Creative Identity (13 min)
Part 5: The Engagement
Chapter 12: Project Engagement
- Part 1: The Developmental Project Model (12 min)
- Part 2: Developmental Project Canvas (6 min)
- Part 3: Running A Developmental Project (5 min)
- Part 4: Project Engagement: Moving between Thematic Spaces (14 min)
- Part 5: Kinds of Project Engagement (14 min)
- Part 6: The 100-Day Challenge (15 min)
- Part 7: The Career Theme Canvas (4 min)
Chapter 13: Knowledge Engagement
- Part 1: The Knowledge Engagement Framework (v4) (9 min)
- Part 2: A Possible Discipline called “Platform Ecology” (21 min)
- Part 3: Platform Ecology (v3.1) (8 min)
- Part 4: Project I and The HERO I Canvas (22 min)
- Part 5: WIDENESS for Multi-theory Curation (20 min)
- Part 6: The Concept Dynamics Framework (15 min)
- Part 7: Knowledge Building and Academic Creativity (11 min)
- Part 8: The Utilization of Theoretical Resources (14 min)
- Part 9: The Concept of Mindset and Theoretical Integration (48 min)
- Part 10: Situational Note-taking: Capture Significant Insights Outside the Room (22 min)
Chapter 14: Thematic Engagement
- Part 1: Themes of Practice: Concept, Activity, and Cognition (29 min)
- Part 2: A Possible Theme called “Ecological Strategic Cognition” (9 min)
- Part 3: The “Strategic Thematic Exploration” Framework (v1.1) (10 min)
- Part 4: The Deep Analogy Technique for Strategic Thematic Exploration (7 min)
- Part 5: A new network of possible themes (April 21, 2203) (4 min)
- Part 6: A new network of possible themes (August 24, 2023) (9 min)
- Part 7: Thematic Network Diagram (15 min)
- Part 8: One 10-day Road Trip, 21 Thematic Cards (11 min)
- Part 9: Thematic Scrapboard (6 min)
Appendix
1. The Path of Creative Life
1.1 The NICE Way and Creative Actions — July 8, 2020 (41 min)
1.2 CALL: The House of Boundary Innovation — Oct 1, 2020 (18 min)
1.3 Life as Activity (version 0.3) — Nov 29, 2020 (37 min)
1.4 D as Diagramming: Meta-theory and General Practice — August 12, 2021 (15 min)
1.5 D as Diagramming: The Path of Creative Life — August 30, 2021 (11 min)
1.6 D as Diagramming: The Life-as-Activity Framework (v2.0) — Sept 10, 2021 (5 min)
1.7 CALL: The Knowledge Curation Studio — Oct 31, 2021 (17 min)
1.8 Life Discovery: Mapping Networks of Enterprise — Feb 14, 2022 (9 min)
1.9 Life Discovery: The “Experience — Theme” Ladder and Meaning — Feb 25, 2022 (16 min)
1.10 Project Network: Moving between Thematic Spaces — July 7, 2022 (14 min)
2. Engaging with Lui’s Theoretical Sociology
2.1 A Supportive Collaboration between Two Knowledge Centers (27 min)
2.2 A New Possible Book: Knowledge Engagement (6 min)
3. Twenty-two Possible Books
3.2 Meet with Oliver Ding: 1 Mission, 4 Theories, and 12 Possible Books — May 23, 2022 (16 min)
3.3 Oliver Ding: This is My 404th Post on Medium — August 11, 2023 (10 min)
