Oliver Ding - Activity Analysis Center

Dramatic Life Pattern: The Watershed I Lived By

Each time, the word "watershed" appeared as a natural descriptor for a structural moment that changed the shape of what came before and after. In this article, I formally name and develop this pattern as Creative Watershed.

Activity Analysis Network #15: Dream, Watershed, and Dramatic Life Pattern

The Landscape of Strategic Developmental Psychology (SDP, v1.2) features three dimensions: The Curativity of Mind, Supportive Life Discovery, and Dramatic Life Pattern. Notably, both the RR practice and the Watershed are identified as examples of Dramatic Life Pattern.

Revisiting and Rebuilding: A Journey of Developing a New Practice

Throughout this process, I found myself frequently drawing on the Revisiting–Rebuilding (RR) strategy to advance various knowledge frameworks — returning to earlier work, reactivating dormant concepts, and rebuilding them from a more developed theoretical standpoint.

Appropriating Activity Theory #15: Before, After, and Watershed

After editing that chronicle, “watershed” became a new theme for me. I began to wonder whether similar dividing lines existed in my decade‑long journey of appropriating Activity Theory. This issue of the column is dedicated to that theme.

[Case Study] When the Circle Changes the Center

It is presented here as a case study in Supportive Life Discovery (SLD) — specifically as an instance of the Achievement Chain in action.

The World of Activity Toolkit (v2.0, 2026)

The simple four-part schema that began as a descriptive map of ecological forms has grown into the primary organizing structure of an entire approach to creative life development.

A Chronicle of Revisiting–Rebuilding Practice (September 2025 – March 2026)

This chronicle is organized around a single watershed: October 2018. That month marks the moment when sustained theoretical book-writing became the primary creative mode — the transition from a practitioner identity to a theorist identity.

A Watershed of Creative Life

In A Chronicle of Revisiting–Rebuilding Practice (September 2025 – March 2026), a series of RR practices is organized around a single watershed: October 2018. December 2025 marks a new watershed in my creative life.

The "Theme–Concept–Framework" Transformation (2023–2026)

The map updated today reflects a knowledge enterprise that has grown from a focused exploration of themes and concepts into something broader: a theory of how concept systems develop across individual and social life, supported by a coherent ontology of the social world.

[Meta-frameworks] Six Faces of the Concept System

The article identifies six types of concept systems situated within the HLS framework. This is not a simple typology, but a dynamic map of evolving concept systems.