Process Book: The Meaning Series

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