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Master Plan: What’s the Big Idea?

The Master Plan

Here I will describe a very ambitious intellectual project (or so I believe) that connects the dots of my work: The Master Plan / The Big Picture. 

Integration, progress, and growth have (for as long as I can remember) been my obsession… in their ultimate sense. How are things related? Where are they headed? What? Why?

The integration of everything… The endless progress… The transcendent growth… 

This passion might make it somehow hard to stick to a job or task for too long, as ‘enough mastery’ only opens the next door. That being said, the accumulation of experiences helps with creation of a web that deals with this ladder of progress and growth. A web that ‘looks’ at the important questions every person should “try to answer”. 

An umbrella-guide for understanding the world and working in it… and even beyond all that. A peek into the meaning of everything, extending the practical and its reach to its beautiful near-mystical borders. 

“Try to answer” is the key here..

Because there is no one answer that I can tell you. You have to come up with your own… This master plan can act as a guide as you go on your own quest. This is my view. 

This kind of project – as far as I know – hasn’t been attempted on this scale, and with this approach, which – even if it looks difficult – I feel is easiest for most people. (Granted that this quest doesn’t interest everyone, and can’t be taken on by everyone. Also not everyone has or wants to give it the time it deserves: years!).  

The Questions

So what are these essential questions? 

Master Plan : The Big Questions
The Master Plan : Thinking about the Big Questions

The questions obviously have deep grounding in topics extensively discussed in philosophy… but here they are presented in a modern (updated), creativity-driven, and practical light… 

Modern in the sense of incorporating more recent sources 

Creativity-driven as in connected tightly to innovation, beauty, and the arts… also responsibility and subjectivity.  

Practical as in actionable and prescriptive, starting from “So, what Should I do?”

The Components

Here is a brief description of key works, and how they fit in the Master Plan: 

  • Fuzzy on the Dark Side (FDS)
    • This Book explores the thinking self by looking at how approximate thinking is used as a tool to deal with the plurality and incompleteness in the world. The effects of approximate thinking span the individual and the group, culture and science (integral comprehensive exploration).  
    • Link

  • Pluribus
    • Pluribus tries to understand the processes of creative progress in the world. It starts from plurality and examines how creative networks lead to the emergence of the amazing. Pluribus is a meditation on the world and its creative flow. 

  • Passing Clouds
    • These (fantasy/philosophical/meditative) short stories ask questions – and reflect on – individuality, creativity, language, change, culture, science, and work. 
    • Link

  • Wings and Shackles
    • This is a part of a graphical collection that tries to – visually – reflect on topics like : work , the individual vs the group , and ambition. 
    • Link

  • The Mask is the World
    • A big collection of short stories that integrate cultural symbols, myths, and traditions from everywhere in an imaginative exploration of meaning, creativity, work, beauty, culture, language, identity, and the shared intellectual world.  
    • Link

  • Braids of Gold
    • This is a Novel that weaves the themes of identity, culture, work, globalization, science, cognition, religion, and spirituality. 
  • I was # 100-4-39
    • In this short novel, we go through discussions of cognition, wisdom, intuitive knowledge, culture, and personal discovery. 

  • The Atlas of Worldly Wisdom (TAWW)
    • This online course tries to summarize ‘worldly wisdom’: what to do, and how. It is an Integration! It does so by using the Awareness-Intent-Creativeness (AIC) triple-helix. It includes extensive reading lists, missions lists, The Labors, and guidance/lessons from a big number of theories and books. 
    • Link

  • The Prometheus Shot
    • The Prometheus Shot is an inspiring and entertaining exploration of creativity and innovation in the world. What are they? How valuable are they? How do they happen? 

  • Twitter Account
    • My Twitter account is a collection of daily reflections, thoughts, quotes, and ideas related to the themes of creativity, innovation, work, markets, and culture (with a few subjective comments that I’m trying to reduce).

The above list includes what I believe to be important explorations that can be mass-distributed and shared. It is temporary and probably incomplete, but I invite every reader to start thinking about the big questions whenever time allows.

Order & Preparation

The Master Plan is the bigger view that encapsulates my answer to: “What to do?”.

It is my own suggestion for a lifelong educational system, somehow, and it can be approached from different angles. This is why, systematically, the Atlas is a good starting point, but not everyone likes ‘systematically’, and that’s fine. Sometimes we just want to take some time to wander around… or look at the clouds… or listen to music.

Going through the Master Plan requires some maturity. It might be suitable for someone with some kind of literacy (erudition) because it references many themes (any ambitious intellectual project has to), and sufficient work experience because of the worldliness and social awareness that this experience can provide…

A shortcut for these two dimensions (literacy + experience) is a university degree with a few years of (diversified) work roles [This is a sufficient, but not necessary, condition]. Having the needed maturity will make The Atlas of Worldly Wisdom a good starting point…

Good Luck!