By now, you should be feeling the crushing weight of signification all around you. The world's a messy tapestry of meaning, and it's up to you to untangle the threads.
At this step, you'll learn to distinguish between signifiers and signified. Don't get too hung up on the former, as they're just symbols, after all.
For the sake of this exercise, let's say we're at a café. The cup of coffee in front of you is a signifier for the caffeine that'll soon flood your system. But what does it mean? Is it a symbol of productivity or just a cup of coffee?
Explore the signified, the thing itself, rather than the signifier, the symbol. What lies beneath the surface of the signifier? Ah, but that's where the real work begins.