Following the Theme (2026): A 42-Post Journey in Reflection

Last updated on 25 Jun 2026

A Creative Note

by Oliver Ding

June 22, 2026

Over the past two months, I shared 42 short posts reflecting on my “Theme–Concept–Framework” creative journey on Linkedin. Instead of leaving those fragments scattered across my feed, I’ve woven them into this single article to present the complete arc — from the initial watershed moment, through the “GAP Project” framework, to the birth of a new possible book.

If you’ve followed along with any of those posts, this is the full picture. If you’re new here, consider this a doorway into a four-year exploration of how we represent knowledge, and ultimately, social life.

The “Theme–Concept–Framework” transformation

Two months ago, I wrote an article reflecting on my journey of the “Theme–Concept–Framework” transformation (2023–2026). That piece used watershed as a metaphor to capture the strategic shift that occurred at the end of 2025:

Before: Knowledge Engagement
After: Cultural Development

After sharing the four-layer landscape diagram — which curates a set of book drafts I created during the journey — I continued to write a series of short posts sharing creative diagramming stories from the journey here on LinkedIn.

That series totaled 42 posts. Today, I want to step back and reflect on these posts as a whole, framing them as a Developmental Project.

A GAP Project

This wasn’t a planned project — but there is a pattern behind it.

In every creative journey, there are gaps — informal, liminal spaces between formal projects. A gap is not just a rest; it is an Agency Threshold. When a project ends, you face a choice: stay within the given routines, or initiate a new GAP project — either an “After” project (for curating creative life) or a “Before” project (for discovering what comes next).

The 42-post project is an “After” project, because it reflected on my creative journey from 2023 to 2026. But it doesn’t end with the 42nd post. As a Creative Life Curation project, I need to curate these 42 posts together and turn them into a meaningful whole.

Usually, I choose “Possible Book” as the ideal container for that new meaningful whole.

If we see the “Theme–Concept–Framework” transformation as the overarching theme, then the purpose of the book is simple: it is about representing a four-year creative journey of exploring an evolving concept system. Roughly, each year has its own focus, and each focus captures one part of the meaningful whole:

2023: The “Theme–Concept” Transformation
2024: The “Concept–Framework” Transformation
2025: The “Framework–Meta-Framework” Transformation
2026: The “Concept System–Cultural Ecology” Transformation

Revisiting and Rebuilding

However, the journey of sharing 42 posts is also a Creative Life Discovery project. Over the past two months, I didn’t only reflect on the past — I also engaged with the present and anticipated the future. In other words, I applied a “Revisiting and Rebuilding” strategy to the 42-post project.

In this sense, the 42-post project itself deserves to be reflected upon and explored deeply.

So, what is the theme of the 42-post project?

Is it about the “linear–non-linear shift”? I didn’t plan the details of each day’s content in advance. There was no linear task-management behind the project. Instead, each time I simply picked a creative diagramming story from the journey.

Did I pick them randomly?

No.

First, the “Theme–Concept–Framework” journey has produced a series of book drafts, knowledge frameworks, and diagrams. It is a large network encompassing several major knowledge systems. Each time, I picked a story embedded at one node of that network.

Second, I didn’t purely reflect on the past. Each day, my ideas were inspired by present tasks or projects. Over the past two months, my work moved from Weave the Life to Weave the Theory to GO Square. During these days, I often revisited old projects, articles, and diagrams — and those revisits directly gave me ideas for the 42-post project.

Discovering the Next Objective

For a Creative Life Discovery project, the “linear–non-linear shift” is a great mindset. But what is the theme that the project actually makes?

The answer should focus on: what do I want to rebuild?

This is the hard — or magical — part of a Creative Life Discovery project.

A Creative Life Discovery project aims to discover an objective for the next project. It does not have a clear objective itself — at least, not in the beginning.

The creative diagramming stories from the past represent a theme of “discovering the way of representing knowledge.”

The future of the “Theme–Concept–Framework” journey is the “Concept System–Cultural Ecology” transformation.

If we shift from “representation of knowledge” to “representation of cultural/social life,” then the answer becomes clear:

How can these creative diagramming techniques — and the whole “Theme–Concept–Framework” system — be applied to the social life world?

A Real Demo

Parallel to the 42-post project, I developed several new ideas and slowly weaved them together:

Weave-points
Living Coordinates
Thematic Spaces
RelationFields

I consider these four aspects as the basic unit of the social life world. This basic unit is a “representation of social life.”

And the 42-post project is a real demo of this basic unit.

The “Theme–Concept–Framework” knowledge system corresponds to a vast Thematic Space. Each day, I would sit at a Living Coordinate — anchored by a timeline (that day) and a space axis (that day’s inspirational theme) — and pinpoint a specific node within that vast Thematic Space: a Weave-point. That point, in turn, corresponds to a RelationField from my creative journey, carrying a story that embodies the dynamics of relation → support → narrative → curation.

So, the theme of the 42-post project can be framed as:

“Exploring the way of representing social life.”

A New Possible Book: Following the Theme

This morning, after reflecting on the 42-post project, I designed a new thematic card: Following the Theme.

I plan to use this card to announce a new project centered around a new possible book. However, this time, it depends on your feedback.

If this book were to capture the essence of the “Theme–Concept–Framework” journey, what would you be most curious to read?

A) A comprehensive summary of the series of book drafts I’ve created along the way
B) The stories behind the entire creative journey (e.g., “Homecoming” and “Lake 42”)
C) A curated collection of the 42 creative diagramming story posts
D) All of the above (A + B + C)

💬 Now, over to you

Drop an A, B, C, or D in the comments under the Linkedin article — your choice will shape the direction of this next phase. And if you’re curious about any specific diagram or story from the 42-post series, let me know — I’m happy to dive deeper in future articles.

Thanks for reading, and here’s to the gaps that shape our creative lives.

v1.0 - June 22, 2026 - 1,167 words