Finding Meaning in the Meaningless
The Meaning Series Process
Overview
Step 1: Identify A Demographic Psychological personality type research Group personality types Define a target personality group Step 2: Empathize With The Demographic Explore their thoughts Organize their thoughts in to groups Step 3: Select Book Topics Identify key topics Group topics in to series themes Create goals for addressing the theme Step 4: Select Books Research Penguin Classics titles Identify books that meet Step 3 goals Evaluate the selected books Step 5: Design The Covers Finding beauty in the face of death Identify natural threats to human life Relate the threats to the selected books
The Meaning Series Process
Step 1: Identify A Demographic | Psychological Personality Type Research A brief overview of Jungian typology and corresponding cognitive functions
The Meaning Series Process
Step 1: Identify A Demographic | Grouping Personality Types Grouped by intelligence, career matches, traits, and philosophical preferences
The Meaning Series Process
Step 1: Identify A Demographic | Defining The Target Personality Group Understanding the psychology and philosophy of the “Creative Intellect�
The Meaning Series Process
The Meaning Series Process
Step 2: Empathize With The Demographic What are the Creative Intellects thinking about? The Big Idea:
All of the personality types that compose the demographic “The Creative Intellects� have a common interest in wanting to understand Mankind and Our Shared Problems.
Step 2: Empathize With The Demographic Creative Intellects want to understand Mankind and Our Shared Problems
The Meaning Series Process
Step 2: Empathize With The Demographic Creative Intellects want to understand Mankind and Our Shared Problems
The Meaning Series Process
Step 2: Empathize With The Demographic
The Meaning Series Process
Organizing the mind map in to sliding scales: concrete vs. subjective reality, and the external/macro world vs. internal/micro world. The inner circle represents thoughts that the entire demographic are most likely to have in common.
Step 3: Select Book Topics Further refining the topics from the mind map
The Meaning Series Process
The Meaning Series Process
Step 3: Select Book Topics Grouping key topics in to book series themes
The Big Idea: Our shared desire for happiness
Step 3: Select Book Topics Create goals for finding happiness in the face of nihilism
The Meaning Series Process
Step 4: Select Books Find Penguin Classics titles that meet the goals defined in Step 3. I coordinated a class-wide effort to create a 1400+ row spreadsheet of all Penguin Classic titles.
The Meaning Series Process
Step 4: Select Books Evaluate how each book contributes to the goal of combating Nihilism
The Meaning Series Process
Step 4: Select Books Evaluate how each book contributes to the goal of combating Nihilism
The Meaning Series Process
Step 5: Design The Covers The Big Idea: Finding beauty in the face of death
The Meaning Series Process
Step 5: Design The Covers Identify natural threats to human life
The Meaning Series Process
Step 5: Design The Covers Find life-threats that metaphorically correspond to the selected books
The Meaning Series Process
Step 5: Design The Covers
The Meaning Series Process