Meaning Discovery (book, v1, 2024)

Published in

Curativity Center

11 min readJan 23, 2024

Capture Significant Insights in Everyday Life

Several days ago, I designed the above cover image and started curating a possible book. On Jan 19, 2024, I developed the Meaning Discovery Model (v1).

The book aims to collect my recent articles about the concept of “Meaning” and related projects.

On Sept 16, 2023, I started using the term “Meaning Matrix” to develop a rough idea about a brand new Theoretical Psychology.
On Oct 25, 2023, I made a new “Meaning Discovery Canvas” canvas for developing tacit knowledge about “Meaning”.
The term “Significant Insights” is inspired by the “Significant Insights Analysis” project (April 2022). I also used it in the Ancitiparty Activity System (AAS) framework because it connects Second-order Activity and First-order Activity.
I also wrote a series of articles about “Situational Note-taking” which is related to “Meaning Discovery” and “Significant Insights”.

It’s time to make a new collection to curate these ideas into a meaningful whole.

I used the Knowledge Discovery Canvas to present the major ideas behind the possible book. You can find more details in The Meaning Discovery Model (v1, 2024).

The possible book follows Knowledge Discovery: Developing Tacit Knowledge with Thematic Space Canvas (May 2022) and Life Discovery: The Life-as-Project Approach (July 2022). Together, they form a trilogy.

The trilogy shares a set of ideas in mind, life, activity, and discovery.

According to the Merriam-webster dictionary, the word Discover has two meanings: 1) to make known or visible; 2) to obtain sight or knowledge of for the first time.

The trilogy sees “Knowledge Discovery”, “Life Discovery”, and “Meaning Discovery” as three special types of Second-order Activity.

Knowledge Discovery Activity
Life Discovery Activity
Meaning Discovery Activity

The concept of Second-order Activity is a core concept of the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework which is inspired by Anticipatory Systems Theory, Activity Theory, and other theoretical resources.

A primary pair of concepts of AAS are First-order Activity and Second-order Activity. While First-order Activity refers to goal-directed Activity, Second-order Activity refers to discovering a goal for First-order Activity. You can find more details in A Typology for Anticipatory Activity System.

From the perspective of AAS, all three types of Discovery Activity lead to Significant Insights which lead to further development. See the Meaning Discovery Model below.

The above model shows six focuses within a 3*2 conceptual context:

Capture the Insight
Weaving the Mind
Clarifying the Order
Running the Project
Grasping the Concept
Perceiving the Setting

A 3*2 conceptual framework also frames the model:

The “Meaning — Experience” Transformation
The “Knowledge — Activity — Environment” Hierarchy

More details are in The Meaning Discovery Model (v1, 2024).

I also developed three canvases for these three types of activities. Both canvases are based on a meta-canvas: the Thematic Matrix canvas.

The Thematic Matrix Canvas (it was originally called Thematic Space Canvas) is not a simple 2x2 matrix for building a typology, but a multiple-dimension model for visualizing a holistic view to sense-make a dynamic meaningful whole. You can find more details in The Notion of Thematic Spaces and Situational Note-taking: The Thematic Matrix Canvas and Meaning Discovery Canvas.

The book also related to my newest idea about “Meaning Matrix” which is part of the third-wave development of Creative Life Theory.

You can find more details in The Development of Creative Life Theory (2020–2023, Part 3) and Situational Note-taking: The Idea of “Meaning Matrix”.

The possible book is divided into the following five parts:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Meaning Discovery Canvas
Part 3: Situational Note-taking
Part 4: Significant Insights Analysis
Part 5: Running the Project
Part 6: My 2023 Annual Review
Part 7: Meaning Matrix of Life

Some numbers about the possible book:

7 parts
29 chapters
54 articles
Total 762 min read
Total 201,930 words (about 404 single-spaced pages)

Part 1: Introduction

I used the Meaning Discovery Model (v1) as the primary framework to curate this book. Part 1 presents the model and some related articles.

Chapter 1: The Meaning Discovery Model (v1, 2024)

Link — 15 min

Contents

The Meaning — Experience Transformation
The “Knowledge — Activity — Environment” Hierarchy
Capture the Insight
Weaving the Mind
Grasping the Concept
Clarifying the Order
Running the Project
Perceiving the Setting
Advanced Version

Chapter 2: Twelve Significant Insights from Four Months

Link — 31 min

Chapter 3: Weaving the Mind and Clarifying the Order

Link — 20 min

Chapter 4: Running the GAP Project

Link — 24 min

Chapter 5: Mapping Developmental Projects

Link — 14 min

Chapter 6: Four Mindsets of Knowledge Engagement

Link — 17 min

Part 2: Meaning Discovery Canvas

On Oct 25, 2023. I used a meta-canvas called Thematic Matrix Canvas to generate the Meaning Discovery Canvas.

The canvas was designed with four major Thematic Areas:

Motivation: What’s the purpose?
Agency: What should I do?
Significance: Why is it different?
Reference: What’s it?

It also highlights four Significant Aspects of “Meaning”:

Concept
Object
Truth
Value

The Thematic Matrix Canvas uses Inner Space and Outer Space to represent the “Internalization — externalization” principle of Activity Theory. For the Developing Tacit Knowledge, I call it “Objective — Subjective” Knowledge Curation. While Objective Knowing refers to Outer Space, Subjective Knowing refers to Inner Space.

For the Meaning Discovery Canvas, I roughly apply the “Inner — Outer” connection principle.

The result is a set of blocks and eight pairs of “Inner — Outer” mapping.

Moreover, I used the Thematic Matrix + method to discover possible thematic spaces of the Meaning Discovery Canvas. For example, the picture below shows a case study of the “Perspective — Opportunities — Resources” Thematic Space.

In this way, we add a new layer to the Meaning Discovery Canvas. The new layer is used to connect Materials and Models.

Materials are pieces of experiences from real-life events for case studies.

Models refer to the Meaning Discovery Canvas and other knowledge frameworks that are used to understand a particular Thematic Triangle.

The new layer turns the Meaning Discovery Canvas into a powerful workfield where we can set thematic spaces and adopt more knowledge frameworks for situational discovery and continuous curation.

Chapter 7: The Thematic Matrix Canvas and Meaning Discovery Canvas

Link — 4 min

Reference:

Situational Note-taking: The idea of “Thematic Matrix +” — 10 min
Thematic Triangles and Life Discovery + — 11 min

Chapter 8: The Motivation Area

Link 1: The “Moment — Present — Future” Thematic Space — 5 min
Link 2: The “Object — Self — Other” Thematic Space — 7 min

Chapter 9: The Agency Area

Link 1: The “Thing — End — Means” Thematic Space — 6 min
Link 2: The “Perspective — Opportunities — Resources” Thematic Space — 6 min

Chapter 10: The Significance Area

Link 1: The “Journey — Challenge — Response” Thematic Space — 8 min
Link 2: The “Connection — Uniqueness — Relevance” Thematic Space

Chapter 11: The Reference Area

Link 1: The “Framework — Context — Situation” Thematic Space — 9 min
Link 2: The “Communication — Content — Message” Thematic Space — 8 min

Part 3: Situational Note-taking

From June 15, 2023, to June 21, 2023, I engaged in a thematic conversation with a friend via email, exploring various topics around the theme of Note-taking and Knowledge Engagement.

The conversation inspired me to make a diagram about note-taking and draft-making. See the diagram below.

Some readers know I was the chief information architect of BagTheWeb which was an early web content curation. We launched the site in 2010. Later, we added a note-taking feature to the product in its 2.0 version.

There are three general purposes behind note-taking: 1) Recording Life Experiences, 2) Improving Work Performance, and 3) Supporting Self-awareness and personal development.

My primary interests are 1) Knowledge Engagement such as Knowledge Innovation, and 2) Product Engagement such as Product Innovation. Both Knowledge Innovation and Product Innovation could be represented as the Development of a Creative Concept System.

My approach to note-taking is more about developing concept systems and developing tacit knowledge in general.

Part 3 selects two articles about this theme. I also collected a set of my public notes which are materials of eight case studies. These notes will be edited as an independent collection. I only pick one case study for this volume.

Chapter 12: The Art of Situational Note-taking (Introduction and Index)

Link — 37 min

Chapter 13: Situational Note-taking: Capture Significant Insights Outside the Room

Link — 22 min

Chapter 14: A Case Study — The Social Moves Project

This case study shows a clear path of Early Discovery: Theme > Note > Framework > Possible book. In the past several years, I used this typical pattern to run knowledge projects.

Oct 17, 2023 — TALE: A possible theme called “Social Moves” — 9 min
Dec 3, 2023 — Situational Note-taking: Creative Life, Thematic Space, and the Social Moves Project — 7 min
Dec 5, 2023 — Social Moves: An Integrated Ecological Approach to Social Cognition — 17 min
Dec 19, 2023 — Social Moves (book, v1, 2023) — 13 min

Part 4: Significant Insights Analysis

In 2022, I ran a knowledge project called “Significant Insights Analysis”. I selected 12 significant insights from four months and used a model to analyze them.

#1 — The notion of “Thematic Space” (Jan 5, 2022)
#2 — The “Mandala“ thematic space and “Pair of Themes” (Jan 25, 2022)
#3 — The notion of “Life Strategy” (Jan 29, 2022)
#4 — The notion of “Service Thinking” (Feb 10, 2022)
#5 — The Project-centered Approach (Feb 13, 2022)
#6 — The notion of “Being by Doing” (Feb 27, 2022)
#7 — The Curated Mind Framework (March 15, 2022)
#8 — The “Thematic Spirit” activity (March 19, 2022)
#9 — The AAS4LT Framework (March 27, 2022)
#10 — The Landscape of Project Network (April 14, 2022)
#11 — The “Domains — Works” Mapping and “Domains(Works)” (April 20, 2022)
#12 — The notion of “Activity as Project Engagement” (April 22, 2022)

You can find more details in the mini-site: Life Discovery: Significant Insights Analysis.

Chapter 15: Discovery for Development

Link 1: The “Discovery as Development” Principle — 11 min
Link 2: “Points of Observation” and “Significant Insights” — 8 min

Chapter 16: Twelve Significant Insights

Link 1: Twelve Significant Insights from Four Months (2022) — 31 min
Link 2: The Significant Insights Analysis Project — 6 min
Link 3: It takes a village to raise a creative mind — 11 min

The above parts are about the “Meaning” area. The parts below are about the “Experience” area.

Part 5: Running the Project

As mentioned above, my primary interests are 1) Knowledge Engagement such as Knowledge Innovation, and 2) Product Engagement such as Product Innovation.

Part 5 collects some articles about my knowledge projects.