POWER of meanings // MEANINGS of power
  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • A >
        • (Ability and influence in) social and non-social power
        • Agency as "Wiggle Room"
        • Power: Against the Flow, with the Flow
        • Are you free?
      • B >
        • The Bad Other
      • C >
        • Compassion as a prerequisite for durable social change
        • The Costs of Order
      • D >
        • Default Mode Network and the Power of Patterns
      • E
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
        • From Binary Power to Social Complexity
      • G >
        • Gender and the Practical Demands of Complexity: Beyond Oppressors and Oppressed
      • H >
        • How Buddhism Dissolves the Free Will Dilemma
      • I >
        • Intentionality and power
      • K
      • L >
        • "Power" in language
        • Limited resources and power
        • Louis XIV and Absolute Power
        • Louis XIV (abridged version)
      • M >
        • (Power and Powerlessness in) Madama Butterfly
        • "May" power
        • Me against entropy
      • N >
        • The Nonlinear Path of Unlearning
      • O >
        • Once safety is secured
        • Borders and the Problem of Order
        • Order, Entropy, and the Limits of Power
      • P >
        • Patterns in Human Life
        • Power and powerlessness are intertwined
        • Power as ability
        • Power as influence
        • "Power" Beyond the Languages I Know
      • R >
        • Recognizing power’s complexity isn’t denying inequality
        • Responsibility Is Necessary, but Not Simple
        • Rethinking agency and responsibility
        • Rethinking Power: From Marx Through Critical Theory to the New Paradigm of Complexity
        • Rethinking Power through Kuhn: Paradigm Change in the Study of Social Conflict
      • S >
        • Schopenhauer in an Age of Polarization
        • Social Change as Unlearning Patterns
        • Social Justice and the Problem of Binary Thinking
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • U >
        • Unlearning Patterns with Compassion
      • V >
        • Vysotsky's Coat
      • W >
        • What Cults Reveal About Human Freedom
        • What is power?
        • What "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed" Reveals ​about How We Imagine Cultural Change
        • When Power Compensates for Powerlessness
        • Whose Disorder? On Entropy and Anthropocentrism
        • Why Influence Is Not the Whole Story of Power
        • Why This Project Is Scholarship: Interpretivism, Hypertext, and the Rhizome
    • Completed pages >
      • My creative process
  • Author

My Creative Process

This project is not organized like a conventional book, encyclopedia, or reference work. Its pages do not always divide neatly into separate topics with clear boundaries between them. They often overlap. Some return to the same idea from a different angle. Some revisit an earlier question in more precise language. Some grow out of older pages and gradually make those earlier pages less necessary.

That is not an accident. It reflects the way I work.

For me, writing is not simply a way of presenting finished conclusions. It is part of the research itself. I write in order to think, to test an intuition, to formulate an argument more clearly, and to discover what I actually mean. Very often, I begin with a question, a tension, or a half-formed idea shaped by reading, experience, and reflection. As I try to express it, the idea changes. New connections appear. What seemed like one thought turns into two. What first felt precise may later seem partial, limited, or in need of revision.

Because of that, the pages in this project are part of an ongoing intellectual process. A page may begin as an attempt to say something clearly, but in the course of writing it, I often discover another line of thought that deserves its own page. Sometimes a later essay says something more accurately than an earlier one. Sometimes an older page remains useful as a record of how my thinking developed. Sometimes it no longer feels necessary and may be revised, merged into another page, or retired.

So this website is not a finished system in which each page has one fixed role and no overlap with the others. It is closer to a living map of inquiry. Its structure reflects movement: revisiting, refining, branching, circling back, and making new links. If you move from one page to another and notice echoes, repetitions, or partial overlaps, that is often a sign of the process itself. It means an idea is being approached from more than one direction.

Expressing ideas is one of the ways I explore them. Putting a thought into words helps me see it in relation to other thoughts I have already expressed. It also helps me notice what is still missing, unclear, or not yet fully developed. In that sense, the writing on this site documents not only what I think, but also how I arrive there.

​The project keeps growing because the thinking keeps growing. What you find here is not a closed body of knowledge but an evolving record of exploration.
If you are interested in getting updates about this project (e.g., when new pages are published), please sign up for the newsletter on my main website.

I use AI tools as a kind of writing partner—to shape drafts, clarify arguments, and explore phrasing. But the ideas, perspectives, and direction are always my own. Every piece here is part of an evolving personal project. For more details about my use of AI, see here.
  • About
  • Introduction
  • Browse the book
    • All the pages alphabetically >
      • A >
        • (Ability and influence in) social and non-social power
        • Agency as "Wiggle Room"
        • Power: Against the Flow, with the Flow
        • Are you free?
      • B >
        • The Bad Other
      • C >
        • Compassion as a prerequisite for durable social change
        • The Costs of Order
      • D >
        • Default Mode Network and the Power of Patterns
      • E
      • F >
        • Foucault's "power is everywhere"
        • Free will
        • From Binary Power to Social Complexity
      • G >
        • Gender and the Practical Demands of Complexity: Beyond Oppressors and Oppressed
      • H >
        • How Buddhism Dissolves the Free Will Dilemma
      • I >
        • Intentionality and power
      • K
      • L >
        • "Power" in language
        • Limited resources and power
        • Louis XIV and Absolute Power
        • Louis XIV (abridged version)
      • M >
        • (Power and Powerlessness in) Madama Butterfly
        • "May" power
        • Me against entropy
      • N >
        • The Nonlinear Path of Unlearning
      • O >
        • Once safety is secured
        • Borders and the Problem of Order
        • Order, Entropy, and the Limits of Power
      • P >
        • Patterns in Human Life
        • Power and powerlessness are intertwined
        • Power as ability
        • Power as influence
        • "Power" Beyond the Languages I Know
      • R >
        • Recognizing power’s complexity isn’t denying inequality
        • Responsibility Is Necessary, but Not Simple
        • Rethinking agency and responsibility
        • Rethinking Power: From Marx Through Critical Theory to the New Paradigm of Complexity
        • Rethinking Power through Kuhn: Paradigm Change in the Study of Social Conflict
      • S >
        • Schopenhauer in an Age of Polarization
        • Social Change as Unlearning Patterns
        • Social Justice and the Problem of Binary Thinking
        • Synonyms of power
      • T >
        • Theory of micro- and macropower
      • U >
        • Unlearning Patterns with Compassion
      • V >
        • Vysotsky's Coat
      • W >
        • What Cults Reveal About Human Freedom
        • What is power?
        • What "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed" Reveals ​about How We Imagine Cultural Change
        • When Power Compensates for Powerlessness
        • Whose Disorder? On Entropy and Anthropocentrism
        • Why Influence Is Not the Whole Story of Power
        • Why This Project Is Scholarship: Interpretivism, Hypertext, and the Rhizome
    • Completed pages >
      • My creative process
  • Author