The Meaning Discovery Model (v1, 2024)

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Curativity Center

15 min readJan 20, 2024

A Short note

In the previous posts, I worked on developing thematic spaces of the Meaning Discovery Canvas. Yesterday I designed the above cover and started developing a framework for a new possible book.

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 canvas called “Meaning Discovery 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.

Yesterday I made the rough framework below:

Part 1: The Model (Life Experience Curation)
Part 2: The Tool (Meaning Discovery Canvas)
Part 3: The Practice (Situational Note-taking, Significant Insights Analysis, etc)
Part 4: The Project (The ECHO Trip, My 2023 Annual Review, The “GAP” projects, etc)

This morning, I reflected on the plan and some old articles. After revisiting the article titled Social Moves: Weaving the Mind and Clarifying the Order, I developed a model about Meaning Discovery. See the diagram below.

This model sees “Meaning Discovery” as a specific type of Activity and places it in a dynamic Process including six Focuses:

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

The model is also framed by a 3*2 conceptual framework:

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

The rest of this note will unpack these ideas.

1. The Meaning — Experience Transformation

The “Meaning — Experience” Transformation is located in the Behavior System (Mental System). See the diagram below.

Experience is based on Action. A set of curated Actions form a Project. Both Actions and Projects could generate Experience as raw Material for our Mental System.

The Mental System could interpret each Material and generate Meaning. A Project could be explained as a Meaningful Story.

Mindset (a person’s way of thinking and opinions) is the instrument for driving the interpretation which leads to Meaning Discovery and Story Telling.

The notion of “Behavior System (Mental System)” is inspired by Robert Rosen’s Anticipatory Systems Theory.

The above diagram is the basic mode. l of Anticipatory Systems Theory. I apply it to discuss behavioral system and mental system:

Life = Behavioral System = Natural System
Self = Mental System = Formal System

A core idea of Anticipatory System Theory is the Predictive Model. According to Robert Rosen, “An anticipatory system is a natural system that contains an internal predictive model of itself and of its environment, which allows it to change state at an instant in accord with the model’s predictions pertaining to a later instant.” In contrast, a reactive system only reacts, in the present, to changes that have already occurred in the causal chain, while an anticipatory system’s present behavior involves aspects of past, present, and future.

For the project about Mindset, I claim that the Mindset is the Predictive Model of Behavior System (Mental System).

Life = Behavioral System = Natural System
Self = Mental System = Formal System
Mindset = Predictive Model

The notion led to the Mental Tuning Framework. See the diagram below.

The notion of “Behavioral System (Mental System)” is also inspired by my ideas of “Life (Self)”, “Context (Mind)”, and “Theme (Concept)”.

The “Mindset — Action” Transformation is explained by the notion of “Formation and Activation”. You can find more details in Four Mindsets of Knowledge Engagement and “AAI as Mental Tuning”.

The “Project — Story” Transformation is explained in The Concept of Mindset and Actors. See the diagram below.

You can find more details in Thematic Space: Project as Story.

2. The “Knowledge — Activity — Environment” Hierarchy

The “Knowledge — Activity — Environment” Hierarchy is inspired by the Ecological Formism Framework. See the diagram below.

The Ecological Formism Framework selects the following five units of analysis to develop an ecological approach to social cognition.

Concept
Frame for Work (Frameworks)
Thematic Spaces
Activity
Affordance

For the present discussion, “Concept” and “Frameworks” are part of the “Knowledge” level. “Affordance” is part of the “Environment” level.

The concept of “Thematic Spaces” is used to connect “Knowledge”, “Activity”, and “Environment”.

So, we can see the “Knowledge — Activity — Environment” hierarchy as a simple version of the five units of analysis.

You can find more details about the Ecological Formism Framework in Social Moves: The Attachance Approach to Social Cognition.

3. Capture the Insight

I used the term “Insight” to define the outcome of the Meaning Discovery Activity.

In everyday life, only a few Insights impact our Behavior System and lead to real actions. Other Insights could impact our Mental System by changing our attitudes and beliefs about some objects.

For knowledge creators, insights are used to develop tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. During this process, Situational Note-taking is a critical action.

I used the “Life Experience Curation” model ( also called the “Experience — Story — Model” schema) to understand this stage. See the diagram below.

Based on this model, I also used some situational models for particular projects. For example, I used the following model to guide “The ECHO Trip” project:

Project (Actions) → Stories (Notes) → Model → Creative Work

I also use the notion of “Significant Insights” for the Ancitiparty Activity System (AAS) framework and consider it as an important outcome of Second-order activity.

An Ancitiparty Activity System is formed with First-order Activity and Second-order Activity.

A Significant Insight could directly or indirectly lead to a new activity. We don’t have to claim an insight as a significant insight when we are capturing an insight. We can reflect on our past experiences and identify significant insights if they lead to activities that change our lives.

In April 2022, I ran the “Significant Insights Analysis” project and developed a related method.

4. Weaving the Mind

After capturing many insights and taking many notes, we have to curate our minds and turn these pieces into a meaningful whole.

For the Meaning Discovery Activity, I called this stage “Weaving the Mind”.

I used Curativity Theory, the notion of “Epistemology of Curation”, and the Model of Curated Mind to understand this stage.

Traditionally, researchers tend to use “perception, conception, and action” as three keywords to discuss mind-related topics. From the perspective of Curativity Theory which is about turning pieces into a meaningful whole, I want to expand the foundation of mind-related topics from three keywords to four keywords.

From the perspective of Curativity Theory, ordinary people need to add “Curation” to develop their minds.

Originally, I called this notion “the Epistemology of Curation” and used it to refer to considering pieces of perceiving experience, concepts, and actions at a level and moving to a higher level to curate these pieces into a meaningful whole.

This theoretical consideration leads to two meanings: 1) we can adopt Multiple Perspectives to understand One Thing, and 2) we can adopt One Perspective to understand a Group of Things.

Based on the notion of “the Epistemology of Curation”, I developed the Model of Curated Mind with eight operational concepts.

The inner loop is called the “Proximal Mind” while the outer loop is called the “Pervasive Mind”.

Proximal Mind → Environment (Settings System)
Pervasive Mind → Knowledge (Concept System)

The notion of “Epistemology of Curation” also leads to three following stages:

Action: Clarifying the Order → Running the Project
Conception: Grasping the Concept
Perception: Perceiving the Settings

For the “Activity” level, I used the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework to understand “Weaving the Mind → Clarifying the Order → Running the Project”. See the diagram below.

You can also find a case study about this.

You can find more details about this case study in Social Moves: Weaving the Mind and Clarifying the Order.

5. Grasping the Concept

As mentioned above, some Insights only impact our Mental System by changing our attitudes and beliefs about some objects. For knowledge creators, insights are used to develop tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge.

I claimed that the “Concept System” is the primary object of a journey of knowledge engagement. This notion led to several knowledge frameworks and two books.

The primary framework is “Develop Spontaneous Concept System”. I consider Strategic Thematic Exploration and Conceptual Elaboration as 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. I used the “Landscape of Evolving Concept System” model for this phase.

I also edited two related possible books: Thematic Exploration and Grasping the Concept.

For the Meaning Discovery Activity, I emphasize the “Situational Note-taking” action.

There are three 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.

In The Art of Situational Note-taking (Introduction and Index), I introduce the “Develop Spontaneous Concept System” framework for turning situational themes into a concept system. By using the framework as the frame of reference, I focus on the relationship between Situational Note-taking and the Evolving Concept System.

6. Clarifying the Order

Some insights could lead to real actions. I call this situation “Clarifying the Order”.

As mentioned above, I use the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework to understand the “Activity” level.

The Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework is inspired by Activity Theory, Anticipatory System theory, Relevance theory, and other theoretical resources. The framework is about modeling a specific structure: “Self, Other, Present, Future”.

An Anticipatory Activity System is formed by two parts: First-order Activity and Second-order Activity.

“Clarifying the Order” means defining Objects and Objects for the next First-order Activity.

For knowledge creators, there are two types of activities:

First-order Activity: Knowledge Performance Activity
Second-order Activity: Knowledge Discovery Activity

Knowledge Discovery Activity is about developing Tacit Knowledge, discovering possible themes, developing concept systems, etc. It is more about Subjectification.

Knowledge Performance Activity is about making solid things of knowledge such as writing an academic paper, publishing a book, making a speech, developing software, etc. It is more about Objectification.

While First-order Activity refers to normal activities which are defined by traditional Activity Theory, Second-order Activity is a specific type of activity in which subjects aim to define objectives and goals for their further activities.

The AAS is a self-referential system. The Second-order Activity produces Objects and Objectives that define the First-order Activity. Also, the First-order Activity produces Results and Rewards that support the Second-order Activity.

The end of the Knowledge Discovery Activity should define Objects and Objectives for further Knowledge Performance Activities such as editing a book.

This is a dynamic developmental process!

In Social Moves: Weaving the Mind and Clarifying the Order, you can find a real case study.

7. Running the Project

For the “Activity” level, I used the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework to understand “Weaving the Mind → Clarifying the Order → Running the Project”.

There is a three-level hierarchical structure behind the AAS framework:

Actions
Projects
Anticipatory Activity System

A Project is a set of curated Actions.

An Anticipatory Activity System is a set of curated Projects. Some projects are First-order Activities while other projects are Second-order Activities.

I used the Project Engagement approach to understand the “Project” level. The primary model of the approach is the Developmental Project Model. See the diagram below.

I also discovered several types of Developmental Projects. For example, the “GAP” projects.

I use the “GAP” project to refer to some informal projects between two formal projects. The idea was inspired by the Gap year.

The “After” Project: such as Creative Life Curation
The “Before” Project: such as Creative Life Discovery

In Running the “GAP” Project, I shared three examples of “Creative Life Curation” and three examples of “Creative Life Discovery”.

In the past several years, I often used the concept of Developmental Projects in various knowledge frameworks. Eventually, the Developmental Project Model became a member of a large network of knowledge frameworks.

In Dec 2023, I used the “Diagram Blending” technique to connect the Developmental Project Model and other knowledge frameworks. For example, the diagram below shows a connection between it and the “SET” (Structured Engagement Theory) framework. More details are in The “Identity — Program — Action” Thematic Space and the “SET” Projects.

This new diagram network is called “Developmental Project Model +”.

If one diagram is not enough, we can use one diagram network! In this way, we have a “1+N” model for understanding the concept of Developmental Projects.

The “1” refers to the concept of “Developmental Projects” and the basic model of the Developmental Project Model. It is an independent theoretical concept and a knowledge model.
The “N” refers to various theoretical approaches and knowledge frameworks.

In this way, we have a simple but powerful way to run Meaning Discovery Activities by mapping Developmental Projects.

Case Studies:

Case 1 — My 2023 Annual Review: The Continuous Curation of Second-order Experience
Case 2 — How did I develop Curativity Theory? — June 22, 2022
Case 3 — How did I develop the “Product Engagement” Framework? — March 21, 2023
Case 4— The ECHO Trip: A 10-day Road Trip and Creative Life Curation — July 27, 2023
Case 5 — Engaging with Lui’s Theoretical Sociology — August 9, 2023
Case 6 — The Mental Moves Project (Started on March 24 , 11min, and closed on July 31, 16 min) -
Case 7 — Projectivity as Cultural Attachance (Started on Oct 20, linkedin post, and closed on Oct 30, 37 min) -
Case 8 — Discover Thematic Spaces of Creative Life and Thematic Space Theory (Started on Oct 31 , 4 min, and Closed on Dec 5, 17 min)

8. Perceiving the Setting

At the “Environment” level, the primary action is “Perceiving the Setting”.

The term “Setting” is inspired by ecological psychologist Roger Barker’s Behavior Settings Theory.

“Perceiving the Setting” refers to perceiving and learning the ecological meaning of the structure of surrounding environments.

From 2019 to 2023, I worked on developing the Ecologial Practice approach and wrote 15 possible books. I also developed a set of related knowledge frameworks such as The SET (Structured Engagement Theory) Framework, the Infoniche Framework, and a Typology of Activity.

The SET Framework was originally named the Ecological — Activity Hybrid Approach. It was developed from 2017 to 2020 when I worked on several projects that referred to a new type of social action platform.

The Infoniche Framework originally appeared in my 2020 book (draft) After Affordance: The Ecological Approach to Human Action in which I used one chapter to develop this idea as an intermediate theoretical framework for discussing various action possibilities.

In 2021, I applied the Infoniche Framework to the Platform for Development project. I also made a diagram for the framework. See the picture below.

In 2023, I revisited my 2020 article about Twitter and the Ecological Physics Method. After noticing a piece of the article, I started working on developing a new method called Digital Infoniche Analysis.

In the piece of the article (see the above right screenshot), I wrote about “Personal Path”.

… let’s use Personal Path to talk about “move” within the Stream of Twitterville. A path of Stream is a moving line that crosses several spots. For example, you read your home timeline (spot 1), then click one of the hashtags and go to the hashtag page (spot 2), then click the icon of one user and go to his profile page (spot 3), then click one item within his profile and go to one of his tweets (spot 4), then click a hyperlink and go to a webpage (spot 5)…This trajectory is your Personal Path. Others can’t copy it.

Based on the idea, I made several case studies of my own “Personal Path” of using my computer and the web.

The method behind these case studies was named “Digital Infoniche Analysis”.

At the level of social environment, I also developed a typology of Activity. From my empirical research about the Anticipatory Activity System, I also discovered three types of Second-order Activity:

Artificial (Explicit Second-order Activity)
Natural (Explicit Second-order Activity)
Tacit Second-order Activity

These three types of Second-order Activity are highlighted from the perspective of Subjective Experience.

Artificial (Explicit Second-order Activity)

For example, a person joins an adult development program to run a Life Discovery Activity. The program is an artificial setting.

Natural (Explicit Second-order Activity)

For example, a person runs a podcast and considers it as a Life Discovery Activity.

Tacit Second-order Activity

A person doesn’t know there is a Life Discovery Activity in his life. However, he perceives a significant insight about something. He reflects on the journey which leads to significant insight.

This journey is a Tacit Second-order Activity.