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<h4>Exploring dark launches, feature flags, and A/B experiments</h4><figure><img alt="A row of rendered light switches of various colors with a big red launch button at the end." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Q-D8dW7B75VFgyphLe8nVg.png" /><figcaption>Image ceated by author using <a href="https://labs.openai.com/">Dall-E</a></figcaption></figure>Traditionally, software products are developed and released in planned stages. Just think of your installed apps, either on your computer or smart phone; oftentimes it will tell you when you have to upgrade to the new version, and you have to take manual steps to do so. The company will decide what will be in the new versions (whether patch, minor, or major), and cut a release to be distributed.Though this still holds true for desktop and mobile apps, many web products these days are deployed using <a href="https://semaphoreci.com/continuous-integration">continuous integration</a> (CI). That is, the moment a developer pushes their code to the main branch, it builds and undergoes automated testing within a CI tool. Once tests pass, it is deployed automatically to production. This method usually doesn’t have specific releases as changes are pushed instantly and incrementally.While this tightens up the development cycle and encourages iteration, this can sometimes be risky. Perhaps you haven’t covered every edge case in your automated tests, or perhaps your new feature will prove to be unscalable and crumble under the weight of all your users.The last thing you want is for your new feature to cause an avalanche of errors and support tickets. So what is one to do to reduce the risk of releasing a new feature while also enjoying the benefits of a shorter and more automatic development cycle?<h3>Dark launching</h3>One way to minimize risk is to deploy a feature to only a subset of your users instead of the entire user base. This is called dark launching.This can be especially helpful if you’re working on a refactor or a feature with brand new code because it creates a very clear delineation between old and new code.For example, say that you redesigned and rebuilt a profile page from the ground up. You might not be completely sure whether it will work with every case because the profile page includes a lot of user-generated content. So you decide to dark launch the new page, swapping out the old for the new code to a subset of users.Oftentimes, this includes adding a url param to search for:<pre>/[username]?new-profile-page=true</pre>This is a great example if you want to test things quickly, but you will have to ensure that the param is always set when you need it to be.Alternatively, you could rely on a local store to set it and forget it, like localStorage . In this example, you would have to set the item at random or manually through the dev console:<iframe src="" width="0" height="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/f59fcfef60eb86ac16430ea0bc40fe89/href">https://medium.com/media/f59fcfef60eb86ac16430ea0bc40fe89/href</a></iframe>Note that is the dark launch feature affects multiple pages or flows, you will have to keep passing that param through every step of the way.Finally, you choose a length of time to run the dark launch. During that time, monitoring is essential, as you have to ensure that the new code doesn’t throw errors and is scalable as you add more users to the bucket.After that time period, if everything seems fine and dandy, you clean up your code by removing any branching logic and launch your feature, turning it on for all users.<blockquote>💡 You can use dark launching as a way of creating beta programs!</blockquote><h4>Implement using “Feature flags”</h4>Some dark launches select a subset automatically and randomly, or are only shown if a url param is present. However, imagine if you’d like more control; maybe you want to enable very specific users to be able to use your new feature. Enter feature flags.A feature flag is simply a binary toggle of whether a user should see the feature or not. To implement feature flags usually involves creating a service or UI that allows an admin to select which users should see the new feature without having to deploy any new code.This requires a lot of if-else statements in the code to case on whether the feature flag is on or off:<iframe src="" width="0" height="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/290c94dd9ac2ebb7fb69d173a12f9732/href">https://medium.com/media/290c94dd9ac2ebb7fb69d173a12f9732/href</a></iframe>How the feature flag is set can be implemented in several ways.You could create a UI that lets you look up a user and assign it to them. Or you could one that lets you apply the feature flag to a subset of users you’ve selected through filters. For example, maybe your new profile page exemplifies the follower count, and you would like to show it only to users with 10,000+ followers.<blockquote>💡 You can use products like <a href="https://launchdarkly.com/">LaunchDarkly</a> to streamline your feature flag work!</blockquote><h4>Downsides</h4>There are two major downsides to dark launching:The first is that it can make following flows more difficult. If, for example, you had to change a URL for the new feature (say, you had /[username] as the route for the old profile page and now you have /profile/[username] for the new), you have to make sure that every link that goes to the profile is cased upon which group the user is in.Secondly, you might have to maintain two versions of the feature. If you are redesigning or refactoring a page or feature, if a bug was found that affects both, you will have to fix it two times before you completely roll out the new code.<h3>A/B Experiments</h3>Another method that companies use to test new features are <a href="https://vwo.com/ab-testing/">A/B experiments</a> (also known as A/B testing).Do you remember taking science classes and learning that a good experiment has a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_control">scientific control</a>, to minimize <a href="https://support.minitab.com/en-us/minitab-express/1/help-and-how-to/modeling-statistics/regression/supporting-topics/regression-models/what-is-a-lurking-variable">lurking variables</a> that muddle up your conclusions, as well as hypotheses to test against that control?Congratulations, you’re already halfway to understanding A/B experiments!In an A/B experiment, you are testing several variants of a feature, page, or flow to see which performs better. Don’t let the name fool you; it doesn’t have to be just a control and one variant, you could have several variants against the control. We could easily call it an A/B/C/D/E/… experiment.An A/B experiment starts with a desired metric that you want to improve, and a hypothesis of how to get there. Perhaps you wonder “<a href="https://medium.com/yammer-product/testing-yammers-signup-flow-13eeb6435a73">How can we improve the signup flow so that more users successfully create new accounts?</a>” In this case, the desired metric is number of new accounts created and the hypothesis is that changing the signup flow will help improve that metric.However, it may not be obvious what in the signup flow should be changed. Maybe not requiring a profile picture would speed things along? Maybe requiring the user to follow groups confuses them rather than engaging them? Maybe the current flow is actually the best one?Thus, you construct an experiment to determine the best way to drive that metric forward. You keep your control, that is, keeping the current flow as-is. Then you create N number of variants.A/B experiments requires creating N+1 subsets of users to test the variants and control with. Often a team has a UI from which they can declare their buckets and turn on a variant for specific users.Then, just like with dark launching, you choose a period of time to run your experiment. During this time, you need to constantly monitor the movement in your chosen metric; in this case, recording new accounts created per variant.<iframe src="" width="0" height="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/8983d4b2755cadbda8ee5de3485e7c19/href">https://medium.com/media/8983d4b2755cadbda8ee5de3485e7c19/href</a></iframe>At the end, you compare the performance of each variant and the control, and whichever did better will be fully implemented into the product and turned on for everyone. Just like with dark launching, a clean up phase is required to remove branching logic and any other straggling code not necessary for the variant chosen.<h4>Downsides</h4>The biggest downside in A/B experiments in my opinion is the cost of development. Not only does each variant have to built out, but so does the branching logic, the monitoring, and the determination of which users go in which buckets. That’s a lot of work and can take time from other important projects.Secondarily, A/B testing is a quantitative endeavor based on a single metric. This can be good if what you want to measure is very concrete, but oftentimes it’s important to attune ourselves to otherThese strategies are a must-know for anyone who plans to work in product or data engineering. None of us can accurately predict what could go wrong with a new feature, or what the most optimal way to approach a feature or flow is. <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/false-consensus/">We are not our users</a>, after all!<a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/karomancer">Karina Chow</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=e49e1e0a5ef4" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://blog.devgenius.io/strategies-companies-use-to-minimize-risk-when-releasing-new-features-e49e1e0a5ef4">Powerful Strategies to Minimize Risk When Releasing New Features</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.devgenius.io">Dev Genius</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Exploring dark launches, feature flags, and A/B experiments
Image ceated by author using Dall-E
Traditionally, software products are developed and released in planned stages. Just think of your installed apps, either on your computer or smart phone; oftentimes it will tell you when you have to upgrade to the new version, and you have to take manual steps to do so. The company will decide what will be in the new versions (whether patch, minor, or major), and cut a release to be distributed.
Though this still holds true for desktop and mobile apps, many web products these days are deployed using continuous integration (CI). That is, the moment a developer pushes their code to the main branch, it builds and undergoes automated testing within a CI tool. Once tests pass, it is deployed automatically to production. This method usually doesn’t have specific releases as changes are pushed instantly and incrementally.
While this tightens up the development cycle and encourages iteration, this can sometimes be risky. Perhaps you haven’t covered every edge case in your automated tests, or perhaps your new feature will prove to be unscalable and crumble under the weight of all your users.
The last thing you want is for your new feature to cause an avalanche of errors and support tickets. So what is one to do to reduce the risk of releasing a new feature while also enjoying the benefits of a shorter and more automatic development cycle?
Dark launching
One way to minimize risk is to deploy a feature to only a subset of your users instead of the entire user base. This is called dark launching.
This can be especially helpful if you’re working on a refactor or a feature with brand new code because it creates a very clear delineation between old and new code.
For example, say that you redesigned and rebuilt a profile page from the ground up. You might not be completely sure whether it will work with every case because the profile page includes a lot of user-generated content. So you decide to dark launch the new page, swapping out the old for the new code to a subset of users.
Oftentimes, this includes adding a url param to search for:
/[username]?new-profile-page=true
This is a great example if you want to test things quickly, but you will have to ensure that the param is always set when you need it to be.
Alternatively, you could rely on a local store to set it and forget it, like localStorage . In this example, you would have to set the item at random or manually through the dev console:
https://medium.com/media/f59fcfef60eb86ac16430ea0bc40fe89/href
Note that is the dark launch feature affects multiple pages or flows, you will have to keep passing that param through every step of the way.
Finally, you choose a length of time to run the dark launch. During that time, monitoring is essential, as you have to ensure that the new code doesn’t throw errors and is scalable as you add more users to the bucket.
After that time period, if everything seems fine and dandy, you clean up your code by removing any branching logic and launch your feature, turning it on for all users.
💡 You can use dark launching as a way of creating beta programs!
Implement using “Feature flags”
Some dark launches select a subset automatically and randomly, or are only shown if a url param is present. However, imagine if you’d like more control; maybe you want to enable very specific users to be able to use your new feature. Enter feature flags.
A feature flag is simply a binary toggle of whether a user should see the feature or not. To implement feature flags usually involves creating a service or UI that allows an admin to select which users should see the new feature without having to deploy any new code.
This requires a lot of if-else statements in the code to case on whether the feature flag is on or off:
https://medium.com/media/290c94dd9ac2ebb7fb69d173a12f9732/href
How the feature flag is set can be implemented in several ways.
You could create a UI that lets you look up a user and assign it to them. Or you could one that lets you apply the feature flag to a subset of users you’ve selected through filters. For example, maybe your new profile page exemplifies the follower count, and you would like to show it only to users with 10,000+ followers.
💡 You can use products like LaunchDarkly to streamline your feature flag work!
Downsides
There are two major downsides to dark launching:
The first is that it can make following flows more difficult. If, for example, you had to change a URL for the new feature (say, you had /[username] as the route for the old profile page and now you have /profile/[username] for the new), you have to make sure that every link that goes to the profile is cased upon which group the user is in.
Secondly, you might have to maintain two versions of the feature. If you are redesigning or refactoring a page or feature, if a bug was found that affects both, you will have to fix it two times before you completely roll out the new code.
A/B Experiments
Another method that companies use to test new features are A/B experiments (also known as A/B testing).
Do you remember taking science classes and learning that a good experiment has a scientific control, to minimize lurking variables that muddle up your conclusions, as well as hypotheses to test against that control?
Congratulations, you’re already halfway to understanding A/B experiments!
In an A/B experiment, you are testing several variants of a feature, page, or flow to see which performs better. Don’t let the name fool you; it doesn’t have to be just a control and one variant, you could have several variants against the control. We could easily call it an A/B/C/D/E/… experiment.
An A/B experiment starts with a desired metric that you want to improve, and a hypothesis of how to get there. Perhaps you wonder “How can we improve the signup flow so that more users successfully create new accounts?” In this case, the desired metric is number of new accounts created and the hypothesis is that changing the signup flow will help improve that metric.
However, it may not be obvious what in the signup flow should be changed. Maybe not requiring a profile picture would speed things along? Maybe requiring the user to follow groups confuses them rather than engaging them? Maybe the current flow is actually the best one?
Thus, you construct an experiment to determine the best way to drive that metric forward. You keep your control, that is, keeping the current flow as-is. Then you create N number of variants.
A/B experiments requires creating N+1 subsets of users to test the variants and control with. Often a team has a UI from which they can declare their buckets and turn on a variant for specific users.
Then, just like with dark launching, you choose a period of time to run your experiment. During this time, you need to constantly monitor the movement in your chosen metric; in this case, recording new accounts created per variant.
https://medium.com/media/8983d4b2755cadbda8ee5de3485e7c19/href
At the end, you compare the performance of each variant and the control, and whichever did better will be fully implemented into the product and turned on for everyone. Just like with dark launching, a clean up phase is required to remove branching logic and any other straggling code not necessary for the variant chosen.
Downsides
The biggest downside in A/B experiments in my opinion is the cost of development. Not only does each variant have to built out, but so does the branching logic, the monitoring, and the determination of which users go in which buckets. That’s a lot of work and can take time from other important projects.
Secondarily, A/B testing is a quantitative endeavor based on a single metric. This can be good if what you want to measure is very concrete, but oftentimes it’s important to attune ourselves to other
These strategies are a must-know for anyone who plans to work in product or data engineering. None of us can accurately predict what could go wrong with a new feature, or what the most optimal way to approach a feature or flow is. We are not our users, after all!
Karina Chow

Powerful Strategies to Minimize Risk When Releasing New Features was originally published in Dev Genius on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Powerful Strategies to Minimize Risk When Releasing New Features

How CBT Can Help Address Negative Thought Patterns
Let’s explore the psychotherapies CBT, DBT, and ACT and what they can do for us and our chaotic minds
When our brains think negatively, the world around us becomes negative (Image by author)
Do you find yourself lost in an endless cycle of negative rumination? Is your inner voice incredibly self-critical? Do you struggle to identify and express your emotions? Do you have intrusive thoughts you wish you could manage better?
Then perhaps you could benefit from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)!
Many people who seek therapy try only one, you know the one, the “How does that make you feel?” type. CBT is a very different type of therapy that focuses on actionable steps we can take to help us overcome unhelpful thinking patterns.
There are actually many types of CBT, but today we’ll be looking at three.
To be clear, I am not a mental health professional. This article represents my own perspective on therapy after exploring 11 forms of therapy as a patient as well as an avid reader who has read dozens of books about therapy and disorders.
Please refer to a real mental health professional for more information and to see which therapy is right for you!
Now with that out of the way…
Fundamentals
To understand Cognitive Behavioral Therapies as a category, we’re going to have to learn about cognitive distortions. Many disorders such as Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Bipolar Disorder (BD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) suffer greatly from cognitive distortions.
One of the main goals of CBT is to identify and dispel cognitive distortions.
Here are examples of a few very common ones:

Black-and-white thinking. Believing that things or people are either all good, or all bad. For example, if you have this distortion, you might think your partner doesn’t care about the relationship and is purposefully trying to spite you after they arrive late on date night. However later, you quickly change your tune and believe your partner is the best thing that ever happened to you after they give you a gift.
Personalization. Believing that you are to blame for matters that are not connected to you. Maybe you have a friend who is chronically depressed and you decide to meet them for lunch. At the end of your hang, your friend leaves still feeling depressed. If you have this distortion, you might feel personally responsible for not being able to cheer them up despite their chronic condition.
Negative Bias. Discounting positives and emphasizing negatives. If you experience this distortion, instead of celebrating after you get a promotion, you might remember all the mistakes you made at work in the last year. You feel as though you don’t deserve your promotion or that your boss must have forgotten about your perceived poor performance.

These are just a small sample of the types of cognitive distortions the following psychotherapies address. To see a more comprehensive list, check out Healthline’s article on cognitive distortions.
If you’re a visual person, Dani Donovan created an amazing article illustrating the different cognitive distortions as cartoon characters. You should definitely check it out!
Another common goal for the therapies in this bucket is to improve communication around feelings.
If you cannot identify or communicate your feelings, start in the center of the wheel and work your way out. (Feeling Wheel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
People often are unable to communicate their feelings, and sometimes they can’t even identify what they’re feeling themselves. The following therapies all use this wheel to help patients not only communicate better but also improve their vocabulary and reframe the way they perceive their feelings.
You use the wheel by feeling into your emotion and matching it to one of the large categories in the center. Then, you look at the center ring to see how you might break that down further. Then the outer ring to really hone in on what exactly you’re experiencing. A more detailed and more official version can be found at feelingswheel.com.
Ok, enough fundamentals. Let’s drill down into the specific types!
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Though all of these are types of cognitive behavioral therapies, this is the grandfather of the family.
CBT operates on the belief that most psychological issues we face in life are caused by negative ways of thinking, unhelpful modes of behavior, and poor coping mechanisms. It focuses on your cognitive distortions and creates structure around how to address each one.
It not only aims to identify and dispel cognitive distortions, but it is also a form of exposure therapy that focuses on overcoming fears by breaking down fear into more manageable chunks and exposing yourself to that fear in small steps.
Imagine you have a fear of giving presentations to large crowds, but you work to overcome this fear by presenting to yourself, then your best friend, then a few of your coworkers. You expose yourself little by little until you’ve built a strong base from which you can leap to the real deal.
Much of CBT is observation and recording. In the process of recording, you can see the trends and pick apart your thoughts and behaviors. By applying a critical eye to your thoughts, you can understand how they might not serve you and work to reconstruct them.
In that vein, one of the core concepts in CBT is the hierarchy of cognition.
For any situation, good or bad, we have initial thoughts or impressions which feed our emotions. That emotion then fuels our behavior. This model in CBT explains why people experiencing the same event may react differently; their initial interpretation differs, which results in feeling different emotions and subsequently behaving differently.
In an inspirational situation, you may look forward to a new prospect, become excited, and go into a planning frenzy. In a negative situation, you may initially think everything will go wrong, which makes you feel fearful and anxious. The fear and anxiety cause you to isolate and not participate.
The process we all implicitly go through when reacting to a situation (image by author, reference from iStock)
Writing down your situations and resulting thoughts and emotions in this way can help you get to the root causes of unwanted behaviors in your life. It gives you the distance from your own negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and allows you to see them as they are rather than being swept away by emotion.
If you were a patient of a CBT therapist, you might find yourself…

Recounting your day and identifying which cognitive distortions were at play during times of high anxiety, rage, isolation, and other negative emotional experiences. For example, you might have a fight with your friend and realize that you were experiencing all-or-nothing thinking that caused you to think something was entirely your friend’s fault when you both shared the responsibility. Coming to this realization will help you recognize it in the future and work through it instead of falling prey to it.
Exposing yourself to your fears in small steps to build a progression toward facing your fears in full
Performing a thorough Cost-Benefit Analysis on common beliefs or behaviors you have to demonstrate more rationally and quantitatively what are worth keeping. For example, you might want to thoroughly explore the benefits and costs of your penchant to instantaneously blame yourself if your partner gets annoyed or upset about something, even if it isn’t your fault.
Learning to evaluate decisions more rationally by comparing only two options, A and B, at a time. This can be done quantitatively by assigning numerical scores. Speaking of…

Some CBT therapists will even hand out worksheets to encourage you to organize your rational thoughts and help structure your journey. Here’s an example of a Decision-Making Form created by David Burns, a psychiatrist, professor, and pioneer in the world of CBT:
A David Burns worksheet I filled out with my CBT therapist
If you think you’d find worksheets like these helpful, check out his book “Feeling Good”!
The Real Reasons You May Not Be Seeing Progress in Therapy
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
DBT is a type of CBT. The word “dialectical” means “concerned with or acting through opposing forces”, which is exactly what this type of therapy focuses on. This type of therapy is well suited for people with trauma/PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, and BPD because these disorders often cause uncontrollable oscillations between extremes; whether between depression and mania, devaluation and idealization, or generally logic and emotion.
As the name implies, DBT aims to integrate our extremes and assert that our best decisions and best selves come from a good balance of emotions and logic. This balance is called the Wise Mind:
The intersection of rational thought and emotional feelings comprise the Wise Mind. (image by author)
In this framework, our rational minds will make the most logical decisions but often those decisions don’t feel right because they may stray from our sense of morality or ignore our true feelings. It is more likely to do what is comfortable and secure, instead of taking risks to follow our dreams or wants.
On the contrary, decisions made entirely with the emotional mind will be ones that feel the most right at the moment but are usually made while in a heightened emotional state. Often, we regret these impulsive decisions and realize that we were chasing a fantasy rather than seeing the reality of a situation for what it truly is.
We all seek to make decisions with both halves. This is a mindful and anchored place to be that is neither impulsive nor stoic.
Just like vanilla CBT, DBT is focused on the facts.
When struggling with a difficult emotion, we look at the facts of the situation as objectively as possible. Only from there, can we move forward in our actions. If we find acting upon our emotion is ineffective, we should consider performing the opposite action of what our impulse is telling us.
For example, if you feel depressed because you can’t find a job and you believe you are a failure that no one would want to hire, check the facts. Perhaps you have a stellar résumé and ex-colleagues who would be willing to chat with you. Then you’d realize your depression does not fit the facts. Despite knowing that, perhaps you want to stay in bed all day, to which you ask yourself “Is staying in bed all day effective? Will it make me feel better?” If you think it wouldn’t, then consider doing the opposite action: getting out of bed and taking a walk.
Always ask if your emotions fit the facts and whether your emotional urges would improve the situation or not (src: DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, by Marsha M. Linehan)
Another core element of DBT is to improve our ability to observe, describe, and participate in our emotions, situations, somatic experiences, and surroundings in a factual manner. This can help us quell anxiety and be more present.
Imagine you missed a goal in your soccer match. The time is up and that goal would have been the one to ensure your team’s victory. You start feeling anxious and ashamed of your blunder and you don’t want to face your team in fear that they’ll be mad at you.
First, you would observe the situation and your surroundings. What can you see in the stadium? Can you smell the grass of the field? Do you feel thirsty after all that running? By focusing on the sensory, you bring your body and nervous system back to the present reality.
Second, you would describe the situation. You were playing soccer, and you missed a shot. You’re on an intramural team and the bleachers are nearly empty. Your team is patting you on the back and saying it's okay and they’re asking you if you want to head out for post-game drinks. They’ve always been very supportive of you and everyone is there just to have fun. By focusing on facts, you distance yourself from the chaos in your mind and remind yourself that the world is not ending.
Third, you would choose to participate. Yes, you might still feel ashamed and maybe even embarrassed, but choosing to join your teammates and enjoy a drink with them allows you to stay in the present, stay social, and will improve your mood.
If you were a patient of a DBT therapist, you might find yourself…

Observing, describing, and participating in situations in which you feel dissociated or not-present
Recording your feelings and activities on a daily basis in an app and monitoring what affects your mood in a positive or negative way. Observe your progress in addressing your cognitive distortions as you use that information to dial into a lifestyle and mode of thinking that works for you
Using structured communication frameworks like DEARMAN to improve your success in expressing and negotiating your needs with others. Speaking of…
DEARMAN framework for communication. This works well when communicating with people with BP or BPD (image by author)
Bipolar Disorder, Trauma, and Love
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT is so much more than a great acronym. The core philosophy behind ACT is to learn to stay in the present and accept your thoughts and emotions as they are. It purports that emotions and thoughts are often out of our control, and we should learn to allow them to pass through without judgment. Learning to stay calm and fully feel into ourselves will help us develop stronger resistance to negative thoughts and emotions.
My favorite visualization I learned was to imagine yourself sitting next to a river in autumn. Every negative thought or emotion is a dying leaf falling to the river. Instead of collecting them all into a leaf pile and obsessing over where to put the leaves, just watch them sail down the river on their own.
You must not only accept your thoughts and emotions, but you must also accept yourself for who you are.
Its core philosophy of self-acceptance is extremely useful for stress management, rebuilding self-esteem, and addressing anxiety.
ACT also encourages the identification of the core traits a person values most in themselves and others. Sometimes this is done by providing an exhaustive list of adjectives and allowing only a small set of words to be chosen. This forces people to think deeply about what is most important to them.
Chart made by author, based on “Personal Core Values” by Scott Jeffrey
After you identify your values and learn to accept yourself in full, you must prioritize which traits and values are most important for you to embody and find in others. From your priorities, you work with your therapist to craft an actionable plan to heal in a structured way, as well as a plan for moving forward in every aspect of life in a way that aligns with your chosen values.
This is when you commit. You must commit to your own self-improvement and follow through on your milestone goals. Unlike other therapies, ACT is very structured and almost like a project roadmap.
Another core concept in ACT is cognitive fusion and defusion. Cognitive fusion is when we become one with our thoughts and emotions. This can become dangerous in people with severe depression or anxiety; if they are fused with their emotions, they cannot perceive themselves outside of their depression. Oftentimes, they will believe that they are naturally a depressed person rather than a person who is experiencing depression.
Cognitive defusion is the act of distancing oneself from their emotions or thoughts. In ACT you can do this by imagining yourself taking a step out of a box and challenging those fused thoughts you might have. A depressed person who thinks “I’m a loser” might then say “I’m a person who thinks she is a loser” or even “I am a person who is telling herself that she thinks she is a loser”.
If you were a patient of an ACT therapist, you might find yourself…

Filling out worksheets to explore your cores and values
Practice meditation, breath work, journaling, and other skills that can help keep you in the moment and accept that you cannot control everything
Personifying some of your negative emotions, like Anxiety or Depression, and writing letters to them as a way to distance yourself and observe them rather than act out from them.
Explore your identity as a person and identify how it differs from your thoughts or emotions

I hope learning these philosophies and core principles was helpful to you. Has it inspired you to find a (new) therapist that specializes in any of these forms of CBT? If it has, check out PsychologyToday’s therapist directory. I’ve found it to be the easiest and most effective way to find therapists (and believe me, I’ve been to quite a few!)
This is the first of a series of articles about the categories of therapies that I’m writing. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be writing two more of these on therapies to treat trauma and expressive/communication therapies. If you enjoyed this one, let me know what you think so I know how to best write the next ones!
Karina Chow

How to Address Negative Thought Patterns and Rumination was originally published in Invisible Illness on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How to Address Negative Thought Patterns and Rumination

<h4>Everything, even everyday objects, have stories. Asking the right questions helps us understand the world around us more deeply.</h4><figure><img alt="Illustration of a lightbulb, screwdriver, binderclip, pocketwatch, and waterbottle all exploding into painted confetti" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*OHbJws7VgdNbRiHNCoSwLg.png" /><figcaption>Cover art made with <a href="https://labs.openai.com/">Dall•E</a></figcaption></figure>Take a look at where you are right now. What kind of objects do you see? Maybe you see a wallet, a hairbrush, and a smartphone. Maybe you see a park bench, a lamp post, or a gum ball machine. These objects probably look very familiar to you, so much so they fade into your periphery and you don’t think twice about them.But, how well do you know them really? Do you know how they were invented, or for what reason they were invented? Do you know what they’re made of? Do you know where those materials come from?Curious about this idea, I took a class at NYU called <a href="https://www.coursicle.com/nyu/courses/ITPGGT/2345/">Learning the World, One Thing at a Time</a>, taught by <a href="https://www.lydiajessup.me/">Lydia Jessup</a>. The title is inspired by a blog post by <a href="https://anthropology.ucdavis.edu/people/dumit">Joe Dumit</a>, a professor of anthropology at UC Davis, called <a href="http://doingsts.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/dumit-implosion.pdf">WRITING THE IMPLOSION: Teaching the World, One Thing at a Time</a>.The purpose of this class was to learn the <a href="https://www.trashacademy.org/implosion">Implosion</a> research method to deeply analyze and research an object we encounter in every day life.You might be thinking, “Ok, but what’s the point of doing so, especially for an object we’re all already familiar with?”Sounds like a basic question, but let’s ask a follow-up: how familiar are we really with objects we use in everyday life?<h3>Every Object has a Story and Lifecycle</h3>The world we live in today is more complex than ever before. Many scholars and thinkers of our time are deeply examining how we produce and use objects today versus in the past.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Haraway">Donna Haraway</a>, a scholar in many intersecting fields such as ecofeminist theory and technology, wrote a book called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Staying-Trouble-Chthulucene-Experimental-Futures/dp/0822362244">Staying with the Trouble</a> that explores the art of creation, and human relationships with non-humans. That is, how do we create and interact with other species, objects, and our earth? How do our actions affect our world around us? Or as she likes to ask, how can we reconfigure the human relationship with the earth and its inhabitants?Similarly, geographers <a href="https://discardstudies.com/authors/josh-lepawsky/">Josh Lepawsky</a> and <a href="https://maxliboiron.com/">Max Liboiron</a> wrote <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5337/Discard-StudiesWasting-Systems-and-Power">Discard Studies: Wasting, Systems, and Power</a>, which takes a deep dive into the systems that surround our every day practices of using utilities we take for granted, like our electrical grid, recycling, and garbage programs. It dives into subjects such as the pollution caused by recycling and how much money is spent to reuse. Most of us will gladly place items in recycling bins or turn on a light switch without much thought, but what effect does it really have?<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/640/0*wZdyjsLSoDqNEJlM" /><figcaption>When it comes to recycling, we usually only think of the left half of this chart, when in reality the lifecycle of a material is more like the right. (Source: <a href="https://discardstudies.com/what-is-discard-studies/">Discard Studies</a>)</figcaption></figure>In addition to these side effects of production and use, we can also look at anthropological and historical aspects of objects and systems.The obvious choice is the history of the object: who invented it, why was it invented, how expensive was it, what did it look like, and so on. The less obvious choice is not only exploring its beginnings, but also its decay.There is an idea of a technological hype cycle, created by the <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/gartner-hype-cycle?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=GTR_NA_2022_GTR_CPC_SEM1_BRANDCAMPAIGNMQ&amp;utm_adgroup=141653137818&amp;utm_term=gartner%20hype%20cycles&amp;ad=618363632096&amp;matchtype=e&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0enzrYfN-gIVBsmUCR00GAZCEAAYASAAEgKj2fD_BwE">Gartner Group</a>. It introduces the idea that new media, or in our case objects, follow this cycle on a graph plotting hype and usage against time. The idea is that the newly invented and released will spike in adoption by early adopters that champion the object, then it will live a commodity phase where its usage plateaus, and finally it enters an archaeology phase, where it becomes <a href="https://jussiparikka.net/2012/09/05/zombie-media-in-leonardo/">Zombie Media</a> and either is replaced, rarely used, or only used by hobbyists:<figure><img alt="A timeseries graph in which the x-axis is divided into three sections: New Media, Consumer Commodity Phase, and DIY/Archaeology Phase. The graph has two lines, one represents the Gartner Group Hype Cycle Curve for early adopters, and shows a huge spike in the New Media phase, a plateau through the consumer commodity phase, then a slow trail off to DIY. The next line represents the average consumer, and shows no adoption until midway through the commodity phase, then a sharp decline in DIY phase" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/960/0*4QMuPcFmv6LJ07Mp" /><figcaption>The lifecycle of an object. (Source: <a href="http://www.conceptlab.com/">Garnet Hertz</a>)</figcaption></figure>So with these ideas, we can finally jump into The Implosion Method.<h3>Quick and Dirty Guide to the Implosion Method</h3>The implosion method was pioneered by Donna Haraway on the very ideas just discussed. An object has its own lifecycle and story, and we can to begin to uncover it by researching across 14 dimensions:<h4>Labor</h4>How was it produced and who is involved in it production? Where and how does this happen? How is it used or how is using it seen as labor?<h4>Professional</h4>How is knowledge of the production and use of this object professionalized? What kinds of professionals or institutions are involved regarding its development, production, use and regulation?<h4>Material</h4>What materials are involved in its production and maintenance? Where have these materials come from and how are they disposed of?<h4>Technological</h4>What kinds of technologies and machines enable it to be produced and maintained? Who has access to these machines and technologies and what are their histories?<h4>Context</h4>Where and how does it appear in the world? What can be found around it? What activities or ways of life enable one to come across it? Who is it for (Who is the audience? Who is excluded)?<h4>Political</h4>What kinds of local, national and international organizations claim jurisdiction or play a part in regulating it? What kind of legislation or political discourse surrounds it? What political history or power structures is it involved in?<h4>Economic</h4>How is it marketed, purchased, consumed? Where and by whom? What kinds of capital, debt, credit, risks and labor relations are involved in this process? How is it part of the world marketplace?<h4>Textual</h4>What texts are on, associated or related to it? Who writes these texts and who reads them? What does the text mean?<h4>Bodily</h4>What kinds of bodies (human and nonhuman) are related to it, make use of it or produce it? How do these interactions relate to or embody gender, race, ability and other group identifications? What forms of attention, emotion and cognition are involved?<h4>Historical</h4>What is the history of its invention (when and by whom)? Are there different and competing versions of its histories? Who tells or owns these histories?<h4>Particle</h4>How can the object be divided up or broken down into its smallest units? What are its parts? What are its stages?<h4>Educational</h4>When did we learn about it in school? During the rest of life? What do we learn about it and what is the history of its teaching? How much do we learn about it?<h4>Mythological</h4>What roles does it play in fantasies? How does it appear in entertainment? What other narratives, stories, and strong associations involve it (ex: joy, fear, science, parenthood, death, sports)?<h4>Symbolic</h4>What are the ways it is used as a symbol? What sorts of ideas, metaphors, movements and ideologies are associated with it? How is this part of a larger system or history? For whom is this relevant and by whom is this debated?<h3>Creating a Gap Map</h3>If we’re following the method exactly we would fill out an implosion method map, by selecting our chosen dimensions, writing what we already know, identifying the gaps we might have, then creating a plan of attack with research.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*ny2AaGRIXXmWHEFE.png" /><figcaption>Implosion Method Map</figcaption></figure>The Implosion Method implores us to ask two questions about our chosen object:<ol><li>How does the object exist in the world?</li><li>How does the world exist within the object?</li></ol>You can see a lot of interesting deep dives into the secret life of objects on <a href="https://objectsobjectsobjects.com/">Object Lessons</a>. <a href="https://www.trashacademy.org/implosion">Trash Academy</a> also has amazing examples of implosions. Check out these infographics they did for plastic bags:<figure><img alt="An infographic showing images of a plastic bag on several dimensions, including its role in air and water pollution, alternatives, and more." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*Q9hqJgYh-IuN8KSH" /></figure><figure><img alt="A brochure-style infographic showing textual information about plastic bags along many dimensions." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*sCFe9JhXBDBASibE" /></figure>From doing this exercise, we can better understand the lifecycle and story of our favorite objects. I implore you to try exploring a few dimensions on an object you take for granted and see how your appreciation for it grows!<a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/karomancer">Karina Chow</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=283181869302" width="1" height="1" alt="">

Everything, even everyday objects, have stories. Asking the right questions helps us understand the world around us more deeply.
Cover art made with Dall•E
Take a look at where you are right now. What kind of objects do you see? Maybe you see a wallet, a hairbrush, and a smartphone. Maybe you see a park bench, a lamp post, or a gum ball machine. These objects probably look very familiar to you, so much so they fade into your periphery and you don’t think twice about them.
But, how well do you know them really? Do you know how they were invented, or for what reason they were invented? Do you know what they’re made of? Do you know where those materials come from?
Curious about this idea, I took a class at NYU called Learning the World, One Thing at a Time, taught by Lydia Jessup. The title is inspired by a blog post by Joe Dumit, a professor of anthropology at UC Davis, called WRITING THE IMPLOSION: Teaching the World, One Thing at a Time.
The purpose of this class was to learn the Implosion research method to deeply analyze and research an object we encounter in every day life.
You might be thinking, “Ok, but what’s the point of doing so, especially for an object we’re all already familiar with?”
Sounds like a basic question, but let’s ask a follow-up: how familiar are we really with objects we use in everyday life?
Every Object has a Story and Lifecycle
The world we live in today is more complex than ever before. Many scholars and thinkers of our time are deeply examining how we produce and use objects today versus in the past.
Donna Haraway, a scholar in many intersecting fields such as ecofeminist theory and technology, wrote a book called Staying with the Trouble that explores the art of creation, and human relationships with non-humans. That is, how do we create and interact with other species, objects, and our earth? How do our actions affect our world around us? Or as she likes to ask, how can we reconfigure the human relationship with the earth and its inhabitants?
Similarly, geographers Josh Lepawsky and Max Liboiron wrote Discard Studies: Wasting, Systems, and Power, which takes a deep dive into the systems that surround our every day practices of using utilities we take for granted, like our electrical grid, recycling, and garbage programs. It dives into subjects such as the pollution caused by recycling and how much money is spent to reuse. Most of us will gladly place items in recycling bins or turn on a light switch without much thought, but what effect does it really have?
When it comes to recycling, we usually only think of the left half of this chart, when in reality the lifecycle of a material is more like the right. (Source: Discard Studies)
In addition to these side effects of production and use, we can also look at anthropological and historical aspects of objects and systems.
The obvious choice is the history of the object: who invented it, why was it invented, how expensive was it, what did it look like, and so on. The less obvious choice is not only exploring its beginnings, but also its decay.
There is an idea of a technological hype cycle, created by the Gartner Group. It introduces the idea that new media, or in our case objects, follow this cycle on a graph plotting hype and usage against time. The idea is that the newly invented and released will spike in adoption by early adopters that champion the object, then it will live a commodity phase where its usage plateaus, and finally it enters an archaeology phase, where it becomes Zombie Media and either is replaced, rarely used, or only used by hobbyists:
The lifecycle of an object. (Source: Garnet Hertz)
So with these ideas, we can finally jump into The Implosion Method.
Quick and Dirty Guide to the Implosion Method
The implosion method was pioneered by Donna Haraway on the very ideas just discussed. An object has its own lifecycle and story, and we can to begin to uncover it by researching across 14 dimensions:
Labor
How was it produced and who is involved in it production? Where and how does this happen? How is it used or how is using it seen as labor?
Professional
How is knowledge of the production and use of this object professionalized? What kinds of professionals or institutions are involved regarding its development, production, use and regulation?
Material
What materials are involved in its production and maintenance? Where have these materials come from and how are they disposed of?
Technological
What kinds of technologies and machines enable it to be produced and maintained? Who has access to these machines and technologies and what are their histories?
Context
Where and how does it appear in the world? What can be found around it? What activities or ways of life enable one to come across it? Who is it for (Who is the audience? Who is excluded)?
Political
What kinds of local, national and international organizations claim jurisdiction or play a part in regulating it? What kind of legislation or political discourse surrounds it? What political history or power structures is it involved in?
Economic
How is it marketed, purchased, consumed? Where and by whom? What kinds of capital, debt, credit, risks and labor relations are involved in this process? How is it part of the world marketplace?
Textual
What texts are on, associated or related to it? Who writes these texts and who reads them? What does the text mean?
Bodily
What kinds of bodies (human and nonhuman) are related to it, make use of it or produce it? How do these interactions relate to or embody gender, race, ability and other group identifications? What forms of attention, emotion and cognition are involved?
Historical
What is the history of its invention (when and by whom)? Are there different and competing versions of its histories? Who tells or owns these histories?
Particle
How can the object be divided up or broken down into its smallest units? What are its parts? What are its stages?
Educational
When did we learn about it in school? During the rest of life? What do we learn about it and what is the history of its teaching? How much do we learn about it?
Mythological
What roles does it play in fantasies? How does it appear in entertainment? What other narratives, stories, and strong associations involve it (ex: joy, fear, science, parenthood, death, sports)?
Symbolic
What are the ways it is used as a symbol? What sorts of ideas, metaphors, movements and ideologies are associated with it? How is this part of a larger system or history? For whom is this relevant and by whom is this debated?
Creating a Gap Map
If we’re following the method exactly we would fill out an implosion method map, by selecting our chosen dimensions, writing what we already know, identifying the gaps we might have, then creating a plan of attack with research.
Implosion Method Map
The Implosion Method implores us to ask two questions about our chosen object:

How does the object exist in the world?
How does the world exist within the object?

You can see a lot of interesting deep dives into the secret life of objects on Object Lessons. Trash Academy also has amazing examples of implosions. Check out these infographics they did for plastic bags:

From doing this exercise, we can better understand the lifecycle and story of our favorite objects. I implore you to try exploring a few dimensions on an object you take for granted and see how your appreciation for it grows!
Karina Chow

Using the Implosion Method to Explore Everyday Objects

<h4>An intro to tools and concepts making text-to-video happen and the potential dangers of using it</h4><figure><img alt="A chalk “drawing”, a funnel of typewriter letters from the left feed into a solar eclipse and feed out into a movie film reel" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*yEMqMeGr0AulSf-5xpsp1w.png" /><figcaption>Imagery of letters to film, produced using <a href="https://openai.com/dall-e-2/">DALL·E 2</a> and <a href="https://www.midjourney.com/home/">Midjourney</a>, made by author</figcaption></figure>With the public releases of <a href="https://openai.com/dall-e-2/">DALL·E 2</a>, <a href="https://www.midjourney.com/home/">Midjourney</a>, and <a href="https://stablediffusion.fr/">Stable Diffusion</a>, 2022 is shaping up to be the year of visual synthetic media.In late August this year, a tweet with shockingly good text-to-video ML demo kept appearing on my Twitter feed. Turns out, it was a demo video showcasing a text-to-video editing feature, to be added soon to <a href="https://runwayml.com/">RunwayML</a>:<h3>Patrick Esser on Twitter: &quot;#stablediffusion text-to-image checkpoints are now available for research purposes upon request at https://t.co/7SFUVKoUdlWorking on a more permissive release &amp; inpainting checkpoints.Soon™ coming to @runwayml for text-to-video-editing pic.twitter.com/7XVKydxTeD / Twitter&quot;</h3>stablediffusion text-to-image checkpoints are now available for research purposes upon request at https://t.co/7SFUVKoUdlWorking on a more permissive release &amp; inpainting checkpoints.Soon™ coming to @runwayml for text-to-video-editing pic.twitter.com/7XVKydxTeDIt’s such an intriguing video to me because unlike a lot of AI art and synthetic media floating around, this particular example has aspects of synthetic media, but it is not entirely synthetic.For media to be considered synthetic, some or all of the piece has to have been generated by a machine, usually by use of artificial intelligence algorithms. This example created by combining source footage of a man, playing tennis on a clay court, and a series of images (or really a video) created by Stable Diffusion’s text-to-image ML model.<h3>Body Segmentation Models Remove Backgrounds</h3>In order to combine synthetic with non-synthetic media seamlessly, we need to find points on which to combine the two. In this particular example, the real footage of the tennis player was kept whereas the background was replaced with synthetic media.To extract the tennis player, it’s likely that a real-time body segmentation neural network was used. ML models, such as <a href="tensorflow.org">TensorFlow.js</a>, can detect head, body, and hand poses from large datasets of body parts. In January 2022, MediaPipe and TensorFlow.js <a href="https://blog.tensorflow.org/2022/01/body-segmentation.html">combined forces to create a body segmentation model</a> that allows you to much more accurately identify segments of the body. With this information, you can easily remove the background in a way just as effective as chromakeying.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/0*V0NGy5iEvSfKvIM5" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/0*cFcYnW3zERS3NjCr" /><figcaption>All of these examples use the ML model that MediaPipe and TensorFlow.js partnered up to create: <a href="https://github.com/tensorflow/tfjs-models/tree/master/pose-detection/src/blazepose_mediapipe">BlazePose GHUM pose estimation model</a>.</figcaption></figure>It sounds complicated, but nowadays you don’t even have to know how to code in order to key out a subject.New tools like <a href="https://runwayml.com/green-screen/">RunwayML have background removers</a> that allow you to simply use a brush tool to select your subject in one keyframe and watch its AI tooling isolate your chosen subject in subsequent frames.Hell, even our everyday tools like Zoom have been getting better and better at doing this.So now that we’ve demystified how to extract out complex movement of a character without chromakeying, onto the text-to-video background.<h3>Stable Diffusion Generates Images from Text</h3>The original tennis player video is produced using Stable Diffusion, an ML model that generates images from descriptions using NLP. After over 150,000 GPU-hours of training, it was finally released in August 22, 2022.<figure><img alt="6 square images in a row of art generated by Stable Diffusion. From left to right: A swirling hole of colors, an otter with a hat and suit, a bunch of robots playing poker around a table, a surreal looking femme robot wearing headphones, an eye peering through layers of triangles, and a melting clock Dalí scene but with TVs instead of clocks" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*Lwq45L6CWzOeQ_r9" /><figcaption>Examples of art produced with Stable Diffusion</figcaption></figure>Unlike most other text-to-image ML models, Stable Diffusion is fully open source under a Creative ML OpenRAIL license. It can be used both on the cloud and on your desktop, though it has pretty steep operating requirements.Like many others like DALLE, Midjourney, and Imagen, it is an implementation of the <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.10752">Latent Diffusion Model</a>, which is the common basis for other text-to-image ML models.To make a good text-to-image ML model, a lot of things have to work in conjunction.You not only need an enormous dataset of labeled images on which to train, but also a good machine learning model to interpret those images to build an algorithm that will produce images in the future. Then, you typically need to process the text fed into the prompt using natural language processing to understand the essence of the request and what relative concepts there might be.So let’s see what we have here.<h4>LAION-5B Dataset</h4>Stable Diffusion uses the <a href="https://laion.ai/blog/laion-5b/">LAION-5B</a> dataset, which contains over 5 billion 512 × 512 <a href="https://openai.com/blog/clip/">CLIP</a>-filtered image-text pairs of varying languages. The dataset is uncurated and rather democratized, so it’s recommended to be only used for research purposes.CLIP is multimodal model created by OpenAI that combines knowledge of language concepts with semantic knowledge of images. That is, it has a generalized knowledge of individual words and what they may represent in pixels. If you feed it an image of a skyscraper and a straw hut, it will be able to tell you with relatively high certainty that both are buildings.Training on CLIP-filtered image-text pairs means that the dataset is easily filtered, or searched, because of CLIP’s ability to discern images with text prompts.This is a really great article about <a href="https://blog.roboflow.com/openai-clip/">CLIP</a>, would recommend reading it!<h4>Latent Diffusion Model</h4>If I told you, a human, to identify cathedrals in a series of photos, you might first think of characteristics, like type of architecture, spires, steeples, gargoyles, church bells, arches, statues of religious figures, etc. Maybe you’d remember a few specific ones, like Notre Dame, and compare pictures to that.We could do that using a computer. We have plenty of ML models that can detect objects, but with this method, it’s hard to detect aesthetic and gist of a subject.However, another way you might remember cathedrals, is purely by their essence. Imagine losing your glasses and seeing what looks like it could be a cathedral in the far distance. You might still recognize it by the fuzzy shape, color, hustle bustle of the town square, and other imprecise characteristics.This is closer to what the Latent Diffusion Model does.It takes an image and adds random noise until it is unrecognizable. Then it removes noise iteratively to get back to the source image, learning what exact parameters it had to use to remove the noise. This new knowledge is added to its algorithm.After doing this process over an enormous dataset, the model ends up with a pretty elaborate algorithm, capable of taking any assortment of noise and de-noising it to create an image. The more it reverses the gaussian noise, the sharper the image becomes.I’m not sure for Stable Diffusion in general (I didn’t get that far in the source code), but some ML text-to-image models actually use a different de-noising algorithm to refine the aesthetic after a certain threshold has been reached.<figure><img alt="A series of 6 square images showing a progression from source image to noise to a detailed reinterpretation of the source image" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*cBWEVUD3XHT_Rq-M" /><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://www.louisbouchard.ai/latent-diffusion-models/">Latent Diffusion Models: The Architecture behind Stable Diffusion</a> by <a href="https://www.louisbouchard.ai/">Louis Bouchard</a></figcaption></figure>In the example above, a source image is given to a Latent Diffusion Model to interpret. It takes an MS paint-like drawing, and adds noise until it is nearly unrecognizable. From there, it revs up the complex algorithm and de-noises. “Oh, I’ve seen a cluster of pixels that look like this before, maybe this is the edge of the brown structure…oh and this green is reminiscent of these other ones in images labeled tree or water…”. At each step, it runs through the algorithm again, passing new parameters and refining its output.When you do text-to-image, usually a neural network NLP model will interpret your prompt and feed that into the ML model, which remember, has been trained on an absurdly large dataset of not just image-text pairs but CLIP-filtered image-text pairs. It developed a lot of context around the dataset it trained on.From there, it will start with randomly generated(?) noise and start the de-noising process.If you want to see a cool demo of this working, you can check out Hugging Face’s <a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/multimodalart/latentdiffusion">Latent Diffusion LAION-400M Demo</a>. You can select at which step you would like to see your image.<figure><img alt="Image of static with lots of cyan and magenta and yellow" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/256/0*S0AvHENOBcmkxrUR" /></figure><figure><img alt="Surreal image of rabbits with manes and coats riding a sleigh through the snow" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/512/0*uDFJK__m0GAPtQd9" /><figcaption>This is what “Step 1” and “Step 40” looked like from my prompt of lionhead rabbit riding a sleigh drawn by samoyeds in the snow</figcaption></figure>Well, now after learning all of this, makes sense why this platform is called <a href="https://towardsdatascience.com/stable-diffusion-best-open-source-version-of-dall-e-2-ebcdf1cb64bc">Stable Diffusion</a>, doesn’t it?You can check out Hugging Face to also see <a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/stabilityai/stable-diffusion">the Stable Diffusion implementation</a> itself.<h3>Using Stable Diffusion to get to Text-to-Video</h3>A video, down to its core, is just a series of images. I wasn’t able to find much about the original project the tennis guy is from other than an employee of <a href="https://app.runwayml.com/">RunwayML</a> stating on Twitter that they’re working on a plugin using Stable Diffusion. That’s the beauty of open source!Speaking of open source, there are plenty of projects, like <a href="https://github.com/nateraw">nateraw</a>/<a href="https://github.com/nateraw/stable-diffusion-videos">stable-diffusion-videos</a>, already using Stable Diffusion to create videos:<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/512/1*x8kmJSSzdF8XX-UPLlmRHw.gif" /><figcaption>Video made with “nateraw/stable-diffusion-videos”. Prompt morphs between blueberry spaghetti and strawberry spaghetti</figcaption></figure>Let’s circle all the way back to our original example.Now we know that with the power of a body segmentation neural network like BlazePose, we can isolate Magic Tennis Man from the rest of the shot, and with the power of Stable Diffusion’s implementation of latent diffusion, we can take a text prompt and generate any imagery.With the power of open source, it’s no stretch of the imagination to see how we can find a library (or write our own) that uses Stable Diffusion to create a series of images from a textual prompt. Perhaps we increase the size and resolution for the background and produce only one image, and use another ML model to interpolate between points when the tennis player is moving, I’m not exactly sure! But this video is definitely more demystified now and certainly seems possible.<a href="https://github.com/nateraw/stable-diffusion-videos">GitHub - nateraw/stable-diffusion-videos: Create 🔥 videos with Stable Diffusion by exploring the latent space and morphing between text prompts</a><h3>Are there ethical ramifications?</h3>Yes, there are. Hell. There are actually so many!Around 2014–2016, an AI-driven phenomenon called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/13/what-are-deepfakes-and-how-can-you-spot-them">Deep fakes</a>” took the world by storm. Using deep learning frameworks, like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_adversarial_network">Generative adversarial networks</a>, users could train an ML model with images and videos of people’s behaviors and likeness to later create synthetic videos or images of that person performing an action.This became extremely frightening when people started using it to create synthetic videos of politicians or celebrities, making statements that they never made themselves. It became a hot topic of discussion about the ethics of AI driven technology.<figure><img alt="An animated gif showing side-by-side an original source video of someone (Amini) lip syncing something and mapping it to Obama’s image." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/640/0*oKxBHrLvJgot14zI" /><figcaption>An example of a deepfake</figcaption></figure>Text-to-video ML models suffer from a similar question of ethics. On its own, it doesn’t seem too bad; to make a convincing full fledged video with multiple subjects and a functioning foreground and background seems still a ways off.However, if we then combine it with body segmentation ML models, we can now take any video of anyone and superimpose them onto an environment with great ease. At its worse, people can pretend they, others, or an event are happening elsewhere and spread fake news or misinformation. It can also speak danger for people working in VFX; what used to be a creative, but painstaking, endeavor can now be done in a fraction of the time, without flexing much of your own imagination.Imagine a video of someone pretending to be captured to start a war, or two videos of the same event but in two different places. Which should you believe?What’s scariest though, is the idea of combining deep fakes with full body segmentation with text-to-video. The potential for fear-mongering and spreading misinformation is astronomical. With this technology you can easily frame someone. This can easily make or break someone’s career, or even life. You can act out a crime, using their likeness in place of yours, and change the scenery completely without ever leaving your house. If the setting is fully generated, it will be unrecognizable, so there won’t be any witnesses to see whether it did or didn’t in fact happen.At what point of an investigation should you assume video evidence may be synthetic?We already were taught to be wary and dubious of “news” we see in our social media feeds, will we now have to question every piece of media we encounter in the future?<h3>So…</h3>As a technologist, I’m excited and intrigued by this technology. You can tell by how much I wanted to research about it!As a member of society, I am deeply concerned. I don’t trust people enough to not misuse it in the worst ways possible.That said, technological progress waits for no one and will plough forward regardless of the consequences. Sometimes we just need to hone in on our own personal experiences, set up our healthy boundaries, and not try to take the weight of society on our shoulders.<a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/karomancer">Karina Chow</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=29a3a2dae2c2" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/counterarts/text-to-video-synthetic-art-is-coming-29a3a2dae2c2">Late to the AI Art Party and Playing Catch-Up?</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/counterarts">Counter Arts</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An intro to tools and concepts making text-to-video happen and the potential dangers of using it
Imagery of letters to film, produced using DALL·E 2 and Midjourney, made by author
With the public releases of DALL·E 2, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, 2022 is shaping up to be the year of visual synthetic media.
In late August this year, a tweet with shockingly good text-to-video ML demo kept appearing on my Twitter feed. Turns out, it was a demo video showcasing a text-to-video editing feature, to be added soon to RunwayML:
Patrick Esser on Twitter: "#stablediffusion text-to-image checkpoints are now available for research purposes upon request at https://t.co/7SFUVKoUdlWorking on a more permissive release & inpainting checkpoints.Soon™ coming to @runwayml for text-to-video-editing pic.twitter.com/7XVKydxTeD / Twitter"
stablediffusion text-to-image checkpoints are now available for research purposes upon request at https://t.co/7SFUVKoUdlWorking on a more permissive release & inpainting checkpoints.Soon™ coming to @runwayml for text-to-video-editing pic.twitter.com/7XVKydxTeD
It’s such an intriguing video to me because unlike a lot of AI art and synthetic media floating around, this particular example has aspects of synthetic media, but it is not entirely synthetic.
For media to be considered synthetic, some or all of the piece has to have been generated by a machine, usually by use of artificial intelligence algorithms. This example created by combining source footage of a man, playing tennis on a clay court, and a series of images (or really a video) created by Stable Diffusion’s text-to-image ML model.
Body Segmentation Models Remove Backgrounds
In order to combine synthetic with non-synthetic media seamlessly, we need to find points on which to combine the two. In this particular example, the real footage of the tennis player was kept whereas the background was replaced with synthetic media.
To extract the tennis player, it’s likely that a real-time body segmentation neural network was used. ML models, such as TensorFlow.js, can detect head, body, and hand poses from large datasets of body parts. In January 2022, MediaPipe and TensorFlow.js combined forces to create a body segmentation model that allows you to much more accurately identify segments of the body. With this information, you can easily remove the background in a way just as effective as chromakeying.
All of these examples use the ML model that MediaPipe and TensorFlow.js partnered up to create: BlazePose GHUM pose estimation model.
It sounds complicated, but nowadays you don’t even have to know how to code in order to key out a subject.
New tools like RunwayML have background removers that allow you to simply use a brush tool to select your subject in one keyframe and watch its AI tooling isolate your chosen subject in subsequent frames.
Hell, even our everyday tools like Zoom have been getting better and better at doing this.
So now that we’ve demystified how to extract out complex movement of a character without chromakeying, onto the text-to-video background.
Stable Diffusion Generates Images from Text
The original tennis player video is produced using Stable Diffusion, an ML model that generates images from descriptions using NLP. After over 150,000 GPU-hours of training, it was finally released in August 22, 2022.
Examples of art produced with Stable Diffusion
Unlike most other text-to-image ML models, Stable Diffusion is fully open source under a Creative ML OpenRAIL license. It can be used both on the cloud and on your desktop, though it has pretty steep operating requirements.
Like many others like DALLE, Midjourney, and Imagen, it is an implementation of the Latent Diffusion Model, which is the common basis for other text-to-image ML models.
To make a good text-to-image ML model, a lot of things have to work in conjunction.
You not only need an enormous dataset of labeled images on which to train, but also a good machine learning model to interpret those images to build an algorithm that will produce images in the future. Then, you typically need to process the text fed into the prompt using natural language processing to understand the essence of the request and what relative concepts there might be.
So let’s see what we have here.
LAION-5B Dataset
Stable Diffusion uses the LAION-5B dataset, which contains over 5 billion 512 × 512 CLIP-filtered image-text pairs of varying languages. The dataset is uncurated and rather democratized, so it’s recommended to be only used for research purposes.
CLIP is multimodal model created by OpenAI that combines knowledge of language concepts with semantic knowledge of images. That is, it has a generalized knowledge of individual words and what they may represent in pixels. If you feed it an image of a skyscraper and a straw hut, it will be able to tell you with relatively high certainty that both are buildings.
Training on CLIP-filtered image-text pairs means that the dataset is easily filtered, or searched, because of CLIP’s ability to discern images with text prompts.
This is a really great article about CLIP, would recommend reading it!
Latent Diffusion Model
If I told you, a human, to identify cathedrals in a series of photos, you might first think of characteristics, like type of architecture, spires, steeples, gargoyles, church bells, arches, statues of religious figures, etc. Maybe you’d remember a few specific ones, like Notre Dame, and compare pictures to that.
We could do that using a computer. We have plenty of ML models that can detect objects, but with this method, it’s hard to detect aesthetic and gist of a subject.
However, another way you might remember cathedrals, is purely by their essence. Imagine losing your glasses and seeing what looks like it could be a cathedral in the far distance. You might still recognize it by the fuzzy shape, color, hustle bustle of the town square, and other imprecise characteristics.
This is closer to what the Latent Diffusion Model does.
It takes an image and adds random noise until it is unrecognizable. Then it removes noise iteratively to get back to the source image, learning what exact parameters it had to use to remove the noise. This new knowledge is added to its algorithm.
After doing this process over an enormous dataset, the model ends up with a pretty elaborate algorithm, capable of taking any assortment of noise and de-noising it to create an image. The more it reverses the gaussian noise, the sharper the image becomes.
I’m not sure for Stable Diffusion in general (I didn’t get that far in the source code), but some ML text-to-image models actually use a different de-noising algorithm to refine the aesthetic after a certain threshold has been reached.
Source: Latent Diffusion Models: The Architecture behind Stable Diffusion by Louis Bouchard
In the example above, a source image is given to a Latent Diffusion Model to interpret. It takes an MS paint-like drawing, and adds noise until it is nearly unrecognizable. From there, it revs up the complex algorithm and de-noises. “Oh, I’ve seen a cluster of pixels that look like this before, maybe this is the edge of the brown structure…oh and this green is reminiscent of these other ones in images labeled tree or water…”. At each step, it runs through the algorithm again, passing new parameters and refining its output.
When you do text-to-image, usually a neural network NLP model will interpret your prompt and feed that into the ML model, which remember, has been trained on an absurdly large dataset of not just image-text pairs but CLIP-filtered image-text pairs. It developed a lot of context around the dataset it trained on.
From there, it will start with randomly generated(?) noise and start the de-noising process.
If you want to see a cool demo of this working, you can check out Hugging Face’s Latent Diffusion LAION-400M Demo. You can select at which step you would like to see your image.
This is what “Step 1” and “Step 40” looked like from my prompt of lionhead rabbit riding a sleigh drawn by samoyeds in the snow
Well, now after learning all of this, makes sense why this platform is called Stable Diffusion, doesn’t it?
You can check out Hugging Face to also see the Stable Diffusion implementation itself.
Using Stable Diffusion to get to Text-to-Video
A video, down to its core, is just a series of images. I wasn’t able to find much about the original project the tennis guy is from other than an employee of RunwayML stating on Twitter that they’re working on a plugin using Stable Diffusion. That’s the beauty of open source!
Speaking of open source, there are plenty of projects, like nateraw/stable-diffusion-videos, already using Stable Diffusion to create videos:
Video made with “nateraw/stable-diffusion-videos”. Prompt morphs between blueberry spaghetti and strawberry spaghetti
Let’s circle all the way back to our original example.
Now we know that with the power of a body segmentation neural network like BlazePose, we can isolate Magic Tennis Man from the rest of the shot, and with the power of Stable Diffusion’s implementation of latent diffusion, we can take a text prompt and generate any imagery.
With the power of open source, it’s no stretch of the imagination to see how we can find a library (or write our own) that uses Stable Diffusion to create a series of images from a textual prompt. Perhaps we increase the size and resolution for the background and produce only one image, and use another ML model to interpolate between points when the tennis player is moving, I’m not exactly sure! But this video is definitely more demystified now and certainly seems possible.
GitHub - nateraw/stable-diffusion-videos: Create 🔥 videos with Stable Diffusion by exploring the latent space and morphing between text prompts
Are there ethical ramifications?
Yes, there are. Hell. There are actually so many!
Around 2014–2016, an AI-driven phenomenon called “Deep fakes” took the world by storm. Using deep learning frameworks, like Generative adversarial networks, users could train an ML model with images and videos of people’s behaviors and likeness to later create synthetic videos or images of that person performing an action.
This became extremely frightening when people started using it to create synthetic videos of politicians or celebrities, making statements that they never made themselves. It became a hot topic of discussion about the ethics of AI driven technology.
An example of a deepfake
Text-to-video ML models suffer from a similar question of ethics. On its own, it doesn’t seem too bad; to make a convincing full fledged video with multiple subjects and a functioning foreground and background seems still a ways off.
However, if we then combine it with body segmentation ML models, we can now take any video of anyone and superimpose them onto an environment with great ease. At its worse, people can pretend they, others, or an event are happening elsewhere and spread fake news or misinformation. It can also speak danger for people working in VFX; what used to be a creative, but painstaking, endeavor can now be done in a fraction of the time, without flexing much of your own imagination.
Imagine a video of someone pretending to be captured to start a war, or two videos of the same event but in two different places. Which should you believe?
What’s scariest though, is the idea of combining deep fakes with full body segmentation with text-to-video. The potential for fear-mongering and spreading misinformation is astronomical. With this technology you can easily frame someone. This can easily make or break someone’s career, or even life. You can act out a crime, using their likeness in place of yours, and change the scenery completely without ever leaving your house. If the setting is fully generated, it will be unrecognizable, so there won’t be any witnesses to see whether it did or didn’t in fact happen.
At what point of an investigation should you assume video evidence may be synthetic?
We already were taught to be wary and dubious of “news” we see in our social media feeds, will we now have to question every piece of media we encounter in the future?
So…
As a technologist, I’m excited and intrigued by this technology. You can tell by how much I wanted to research about it!
As a member of society, I am deeply concerned. I don’t trust people enough to not misuse it in the worst ways possible.
That said, technological progress waits for no one and will plough forward regardless of the consequences. Sometimes we just need to hone in on our own personal experiences, set up our healthy boundaries, and not try to take the weight of society on our shoulders.
Karina Chow

Late to the AI Art Party and Playing Catch-Up? was originally published in Counter Arts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Late to the AI Art Party and Playing Catch-Up?

<h4>Advantages of studying abroad later in life, even when your fellow students are a bunch of party-going 19-year-olds</h4><figure><img alt="A colorful art deco illustration of many famous landmarks in the world, like the Empire State Building, the Fernseherturm, and Eiffel Tower" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*lIYle8cvbo4htBjTaz2nbw.png" /><figcaption>Image created by author <a href="https://www.midjourney.com/home/">using Midjourney</a> and <a href="https://openai.com/dall-e-2/">DALL-E 2</a></figcaption></figure>Studying abroad is a fantastic opportunity for people to get out of their comfort zone and develop empathy for others, gaining additional perspective on the world in the process. It’s rather common for people to take a travel year after their last year of secondary school, as both a celebration of graduating and a breather before the next chapter of life. Similarly, it’s common for university students to take a semester abroad, potentially taking classes they otherwise would not have been able to take or to expand their language abilities.However, what if you couldn’t have that experience in your youth? Maybe you had more responsibilities earlier in life than your peers, or you didn’t have the money or time. Perhaps you didn’t have the courage or the interest back then, but you do now. Do you have to resign yourself to believing that you just “missed your chance” and woefully admit defeat?No! Of course not.Traveling for educational purposes can be much more rewarding when you’re older. I learned this firsthand.I had two technical majors in university and struggled to pass my classes. That, and I worked several jobs to ward away the piling interest on my tens of thousands of dollars worth of student loans. It just seemed reckless and irresponsible to go off on a multi-month adventure abroad back then.A decade later, I was burnt out from my career and was itching for an adventure. Just after the travel restrictions during the Delta variant of COVID were lifted, I put my life on hold and signed up for a study abroad program in Berlin through <a href="https://www.ef.edu/">EF Education First</a>.At first, I was very insecure about my age. After all, I was in my 30’s in a sea of 19-year-olds fresh out of secondary school. However, I eventually found my crew of other students in their 30s and beyond, and by the end, I felt confident in my own skin. After observing all of our experiences in our program, I can proudly say there are many advantages to being an older student abroad:<h3>You have more money and opportunity.</h3>I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that if you’re considering studying abroad in your late 20s or beyond, you probably have some expendable cash. You might not be rich, but you likely can afford some tickets for weekend train trips and museums, and hopefully for nourishing yourself with something other than cheap street food every single night.I mean, still eat the delicious cheap street food. Maybe just not every night.Though scrimping and saving often add to the fun of an experience abroad, it can also add to your stress levels and limit your pool of options.I had the luxury of being able to select my ticket and be able to stay longer and actually enjoy my time. That’s not to say that I splurged and threw money into the air; I still took public transportation, bought discounted tickets, and ate small quick meals.For example, when we visited Hamburg, my fellow students came in at 11:00 am and left at 7:00 pm, doing not much more than following the tour guide around. I rented a tiny, cheap Airbnb and came the night before, and stayed another day and a half after the tour. With my extra time, I got to see a musical, visit a couple of museums at a student discount, and take leisurely strolls through the town. Even had I saved more and not attended the musical or museums, just having that extra breathing room to not rush in and out gave me more appreciation for where I was.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*EmtTA__okedjd_Aj6Zt_vA.jpeg" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*ztp6rzPzcDcoibnnGEbTtA.jpeg" /><figcaption>As a young adult, I was in Vienna for a couple of days and bought €2 standing ballet tickets, but left early because my feet hurt and I couldn’t see anything. This time, I paid a little more (though still not much!) to actually enjoy the performances I was at (photographs by author)</figcaption></figure><h3>You appreciate culture and history more.</h3>However, because they were so singularly focused on “having a good time,” they missed out on so much more.Don’t get me wrong; I spent time clubbing as well. After all, that’s part of the Berlin experience! But I was also keen on learning more about culture and history.When I met new people, I preferred to sit down with them at a café or bar to talk about where they’re from and what the people are like instead of immediately jumping into memes and party invitations.When I went to museums, I would take it slower to read more of the plaques and piece together my understanding of the world around me instead of just taking pictures of display items for Instagram.When we explored the town, I was equally interested in checking out operas and plays as I was in going to clubs and parties.You can see exactly how this is going.I truly came out of the experience feeling like I learned a lot, in and out of the classroom. As a young 19-year-old myself, I still did a lot of these things, but I feel like I didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now. I truly believe that with age comes wisdom and a deeper understanding of the world around us if we wish to understand it.<h3>You are more self-directed and socially confident.</h3>One of the traps I saw my younger classmates fall into was wanting to be seen as cool by the other students and letting that want dictate how they spent their time during the program.Not only was clubbing a huge focal point, but I noticed many students only traveled in groups and rarely did activities on their own. Many of them would get a strong case of FOMO and go out and do things they clearly didn’t want to because they didn’t want to be seen as uncool.Several times, girls in my class would panic when they weren’t invited to something, and equally so, several people went out for late-night clubbing when they clearly didn’t want to.I found my group of fellow actual adult students, and we hung out quite a bit. But I also did quite a lot on my own:<ul><li>Going to museums and taking notes</li><li>Taking hikes and nature walks</li><li>Purposefully exploring parts of the city that aren’t trendy</li><li>Talking to locals about their views on COVID, politics, and culture</li><li>Attending flea markets and fairs</li><li>Going to hangout spots like jazz clubs and pool halls</li><li>Meeting new people at MeetUps related to my career</li><li>Took additional classes in topics I was interested in</li><li>Did outside research and did my own field trips for groups and organizations that were doing work I was already following</li><li>…and many more</li></ul>I never felt like I had to impress anyone with what I decided to do, though I saw many of my younger classmates seeking out the perfect Instagram-worthy shots. I’m very happy that I felt confident enough to follow my own path and not get sucked into popularity contests.<figure><img alt="A wall full of spools of colorful PLA" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*LdU0tOClSMkqUizYzAcp8A.jpeg" /></figure><figure><img alt="Author sitting on an angular bench with projection mapping on it" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*5pI0voDnemeGkM9XxpoMxA.jpeg" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*ABDIvL6_b6nXUSUNyoSDBg.png" /><figcaption>I signed up for a maker space membership and attended many media art exhibits, among many other things (photographs by author)</figcaption></figure><h3>Your social circle is far more diversified</h3>When you’re a young adult, you usually only make friends with other young adults. Oftentimes, you don’t have enough life experience to develop closer relationships with others, but even then, it’s often inappropriate for older adults to befriend you anyway. That’s also assuming you’d want older friends, and let’s be honest; we know that most of us, as younger adults, thought that anyone older than 25 was wise and old but also not fun.As an older student, you’re uniquely positioned to learn the most from the people around you.You interact daily with young adult students because you must. School creates a great excuse to talk to others a generation (or two) younger than you while also maintaining a solid boundary to ensure safety.My niece and nephew are both Zoomers, but without direct family members, I wouldn’t interact much with members of younger generations. That common lack of interaction usually leads to the types of misunderstandings that make younger folk think you’re an old, outdated dinosaur. Despite all my complaints about the kids in my program, I learned a lot about Gen Z culture and perspective, as they were always excited to show me the latest media, tell me jokes and stories, and talk to me about their ideas.Likewise, as an older student, I also had better access to people in the same or older generations. A 19-year-old trying to befriend their 40-year-old teacher is cute, but often unfulfilling and risky for both people involved. However, a 30-year-old student befriending her 40-year-old teacher is much more acceptable and appropriate.As an older student, I could straddle that line well, interacting with Gen Z students as well as Millennial and Gen X students, teachers, and staff. I got to see multi-generational perspectives on the same subjects and the student, teacher, and administrative viewpoints on the same subjects.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*1SvdoV-vy-QAhvXeCyri2Q.png" /></figure><figure><img alt="Author drinking beer with 3 other students in ages ranging from 17 to 50" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*X1Zuw0BUim8xze-d" /></figure><figure><img alt="A photograph of the author (in her 30&#39;s), and 3 other students age ranging from 17 to 31" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*PwhE9j2Q3XNFjsNoGt3m5g.png" /><figcaption>The ages of students range from 17 to mid-’50s. The staff is mainly in their late 20’s to mid-&#39;40s (photographs by author)</figcaption></figure>In addition to school, you might even know people in the location you’d like to study. While the younger folk largely don’t know people outside their immediate hometown, you’ve already had a life full of childhood pals, university peers, work colleagues, and other community members. You may even find you have many opportunities to live as the locals do.<h3>You don’t have to answer to anyone but yourself</h3>Potentially the most beautiful thing about being an older study-abroad student is that there aren’t any expectations other than the ones you set for yourself.Your parents aren’t forcing you to be there to learn a language to help you get into university.Your ability to graduate university isn’t contingent on your grade in your language program.You aren’t banking on the program to help you find an internship or a job after you complete your language certification.You’re really doing this to learn for you, and there’s something both empowering and terrifying about that. You can’t blame anyone other than yourself if all goes wrong, but you also can define the metrics of success.I’ve talked to many people who were wistful for a study abroad opportunity but felt they were too old. We had several people in my program in their 50s, and they all came in with an amazing attitude to learn and a desire to make the experience their own.One of them even came back a year later for round two.Don’t let age stop you from trying new experiences and making up for missed opportunities! We’re never too old to be a student again. After all, we’re always going to be students of life.<a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/karomancer">Karina Chow</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=17b3e2cf7809" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/counterarts/its-never-too-late-to-fulfill-your-dream-of-studying-abroad-17b3e2cf7809">It’s Never too Late to Fulfill your Dream of Studying Abroad</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/counterarts">Counter Arts</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Advantages of studying abroad later in life, even when your fellow students are a bunch of party-going 19-year-olds
Image created by author using Midjourney and DALL-E 2
Studying abroad is a fantastic opportunity for people to get out of their comfort zone and develop empathy for others, gaining additional perspective on the world in the process. It’s rather common for people to take a travel year after their last year of secondary school, as both a celebration of graduating and a breather before the next chapter of life. Similarly, it’s common for university students to take a semester abroad, potentially taking classes they otherwise would not have been able to take or to expand their language abilities.
However, what if you couldn’t have that experience in your youth? Maybe you had more responsibilities earlier in life than your peers, or you didn’t have the money or time. Perhaps you didn’t have the courage or the interest back then, but you do now. Do you have to resign yourself to believing that you just “missed your chance” and woefully admit defeat?
No! Of course not.
Traveling for educational purposes can be much more rewarding when you’re older. I learned this firsthand.
I had two technical majors in university and struggled to pass my classes. That, and I worked several jobs to ward away the piling interest on my tens of thousands of dollars worth of student loans. It just seemed reckless and irresponsible to go off on a multi-month adventure abroad back then.
A decade later, I was burnt out from my career and was itching for an adventure. Just after the travel restrictions during the Delta variant of COVID were lifted, I put my life on hold and signed up for a study abroad program in Berlin through EF Education First.
At first, I was very insecure about my age. After all, I was in my 30’s in a sea of 19-year-olds fresh out of secondary school. However, I eventually found my crew of other students in their 30s and beyond, and by the end, I felt confident in my own skin. After observing all of our experiences in our program, I can proudly say there are many advantages to being an older student abroad:
You have more money and opportunity.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that if you’re considering studying abroad in your late 20s or beyond, you probably have some expendable cash. You might not be rich, but you likely can afford some tickets for weekend train trips and museums, and hopefully for nourishing yourself with something other than cheap street food every single night.
I mean, still eat the delicious cheap street food. Maybe just not every night.
Though scrimping and saving often add to the fun of an experience abroad, it can also add to your stress levels and limit your pool of options.
I had the luxury of being able to select my ticket and be able to stay longer and actually enjoy my time. That’s not to say that I splurged and threw money into the air; I still took public transportation, bought discounted tickets, and ate small quick meals.
For example, when we visited Hamburg, my fellow students came in at 11:00 am and left at 7:00 pm, doing not much more than following the tour guide around. I rented a tiny, cheap Airbnb and came the night before, and stayed another day and a half after the tour. With my extra time, I got to see a musical, visit a couple of museums at a student discount, and take leisurely strolls through the town. Even had I saved more and not attended the musical or museums, just having that extra breathing room to not rush in and out gave me more appreciation for where I was.
As a young adult, I was in Vienna for a couple of days and bought €2 standing ballet tickets, but left early because my feet hurt and I couldn’t see anything. This time, I paid a little more (though still not much!) to actually enjoy the performances I was at (photographs by author)
You appreciate culture and history more.
However, because they were so singularly focused on “having a good time,” they missed out on so much more.
Don’t get me wrong; I spent time clubbing as well. After all, that’s part of the Berlin experience! But I was also keen on learning more about culture and history.
When I met new people, I preferred to sit down with them at a café or bar to talk about where they’re from and what the people are like instead of immediately jumping into memes and party invitations.
When I went to museums, I would take it slower to read more of the plaques and piece together my understanding of the world around me instead of just taking pictures of display items for Instagram.
When we explored the town, I was equally interested in checking out operas and plays as I was in going to clubs and parties.
You can see exactly how this is going.
I truly came out of the experience feeling like I learned a lot, in and out of the classroom. As a young 19-year-old myself, I still did a lot of these things, but I feel like I didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now. I truly believe that with age comes wisdom and a deeper understanding of the world around us if we wish to understand it.
You are more self-directed and socially confident.
One of the traps I saw my younger classmates fall into was wanting to be seen as cool by the other students and letting that want dictate how they spent their time during the program.
Not only was clubbing a huge focal point, but I noticed many students only traveled in groups and rarely did activities on their own. Many of them would get a strong case of FOMO and go out and do things they clearly didn’t want to because they didn’t want to be seen as uncool.
Several times, girls in my class would panic when they weren’t invited to something, and equally so, several people went out for late-night clubbing when they clearly didn’t want to.
I found my group of fellow actual adult students, and we hung out quite a bit. But I also did quite a lot on my own:

Going to museums and taking notes
Taking hikes and nature walks
Purposefully exploring parts of the city that aren’t trendy
Talking to locals about their views on COVID, politics, and culture
Attending flea markets and fairs
Going to hangout spots like jazz clubs and pool halls
Meeting new people at MeetUps related to my career
Took additional classes in topics I was interested in
Did outside research and did my own field trips for groups and organizations that were doing work I was already following
…and many more

I never felt like I had to impress anyone with what I decided to do, though I saw many of my younger classmates seeking out the perfect Instagram-worthy shots. I’m very happy that I felt confident enough to follow my own path and not get sucked into popularity contests.
I signed up for a maker space membership and attended many media art exhibits, among many other things (photographs by author)
Your social circle is far more diversified
When you’re a young adult, you usually only make friends with other young adults. Oftentimes, you don’t have enough life experience to develop closer relationships with others, but even then, it’s often inappropriate for older adults to befriend you anyway. That’s also assuming you’d want older friends, and let’s be honest; we know that most of us, as younger adults, thought that anyone older than 25 was wise and old but also not fun.
As an older student, you’re uniquely positioned to learn the most from the people around you.
You interact daily with young adult students because you must. School creates a great excuse to talk to others a generation (or two) younger than you while also maintaining a solid boundary to ensure safety.
My niece and nephew are both Zoomers, but without direct family members, I wouldn’t interact much with members of younger generations. That common lack of interaction usually leads to the types of misunderstandings that make younger folk think you’re an old, outdated dinosaur. Despite all my complaints about the kids in my program, I learned a lot about Gen Z culture and perspective, as they were always excited to show me the latest media, tell me jokes and stories, and talk to me about their ideas.
Likewise, as an older student, I also had better access to people in the same or older generations. A 19-year-old trying to befriend their 40-year-old teacher is cute, but often unfulfilling and risky for both people involved. However, a 30-year-old student befriending her 40-year-old teacher is much more acceptable and appropriate.
As an older student, I could straddle that line well, interacting with Gen Z students as well as Millennial and Gen X students, teachers, and staff. I got to see multi-generational perspectives on the same subjects and the student, teacher, and administrative viewpoints on the same subjects.
The ages of students range from 17 to mid-’50s. The staff is mainly in their late 20’s to mid-'40s (photographs by author)
In addition to school, you might even know people in the location you’d like to study. While the younger folk largely don’t know people outside their immediate hometown, you’ve already had a life full of childhood pals, university peers, work colleagues, and other community members. You may even find you have many opportunities to live as the locals do.
You don’t have to answer to anyone but yourself
Potentially the most beautiful thing about being an older study-abroad student is that there aren’t any expectations other than the ones you set for yourself.
Your parents aren’t forcing you to be there to learn a language to help you get into university.
Your ability to graduate university isn’t contingent on your grade in your language program.
You aren’t banking on the program to help you find an internship or a job after you complete your language certification.
You’re really doing this to learn for you, and there’s something both empowering and terrifying about that. You can’t blame anyone other than yourself if all goes wrong, but you also can define the metrics of success.
I’ve talked to many people who were wistful for a study abroad opportunity but felt they were too old. We had several people in my program in their 50s, and they all came in with an amazing attitude to learn and a desire to make the experience their own.
One of them even came back a year later for round two.
Don’t let age stop you from trying new experiences and making up for missed opportunities! We’re never too old to be a student again. After all, we’re always going to be students of life.
Karina Chow

It’s Never too Late to Fulfill your Dream of Studying Abroad was originally published in Counter Arts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It’s Never too Late to Fulfill your Dream of Studying Abroad

<h4>3 reasons as to how a collaborative mindset can offer us higher signal about whether a candidate is a good fit</h4><figure><img alt="An illustration of two people looking at a computer screen full of code together" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*dLY0mAclz0IDB5XUfs5Bpw.png" /><figcaption>Made using Midjourney</figcaption></figure>In the mid 2010s, the advantages of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_programming">pair</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_programming">mob programming</a> was a popular topic. Companies like <a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Wanelo-RVW10324931.htm">Wanelo</a> became well known for championing pair programming as part of the development cycle, and Pivotal Labs going in so far <a href="https://medium.com/pragmatic-programmers/pairing-at-pivotal-labs-fba895853788">as requiring it</a>. <a href="https://review.firstround.com/Why-Every-Startup-Should-Pair-Program">Some VCs</a> also touted its importance as a way of creating a strong collaborative corporate culture.Now, I’m not in favor of pair programming as a requirement or replacement for solo programming, but I’m always a big fan of collaborative problem solving. In my career, pair programming in these instances did indeed help develop a level of trust and comfort between members of our teams, and increased the quality of our work.With that in mind, it makes sense that <a href="https://distantjob.com/blog/pair-programming-interviews/">pair programming interviews</a> would have the same kind of benefits.Pair programming interviews typically have a short project for the interviewer and candidate to code together, such as building the UI for a small app, designing and implementing an API, or writing a small service. In this model, instead of the candidate programming the project solo, with occasional questions to the interviewer, the candidate drives the session while the interviewer is taken along for the ride as a peer and collaborator.Here are a few reasons as to why this approach works well:<h3>It uncovers the candidate’s strengths</h3>If done well, a pair programming interview should be designed to be purposefully open-ended in order to uncover the candidate’s strengths instead of focusing on their potential deficiencies.While traditional DSA and whiteboard interviews test for logical thinking and problem solving, they often don’t paint a full picture of the candidate’s full potential. One candidate who knows how to implement binary search in their sleep may lack communication skills or domain knowledge in the languages and frameworks you need them to work in. Likewise, a well-suited candidate versed with product thinking or have a lot of domain knowledge may not have implemented FizzBuzz for over a decade and be screened right out of your job just for being slower than new grads.Pair Programming interviews allow you to work side-by-side with your candidate and uncover strengths during the process such as<ul><li>Product/UI/UX thinking</li><li>Communication skills (both technical and not)</li><li>Development style (e.g. TDD, ATDD, BDD)</li><li>General workflow</li><li>API design</li><li>Performance considerations</li><li>State management</li><li>Deep domain knowledge on language or framework</li><li>Debugging skills</li><li>Knowledge of deployment and build systems</li><li>Experience in testing, accessibility, and other underrepresented areas of knowledge in single issue interviews</li></ul><a href="https://levelup.gitconnected.com/3-ux-ideas-that-can-help-us-become-better-technical-interviewers-987e02864992">Interview More Empathetically to Create More Diverse Teams</a><h3>It evaluate skills in a more realistic environment</h3>Collaborative problem solving and product planning on whiteboards with colleagues is common and often productive (and something I miss when working remotely), but we all know by now that expecting anyone to write pristine code on a whiteboard is an absolutely insane ask.Even in a lot of other programming interviews, candidates are given a shared browser based notepad to write their code, which often have tools for the interviewer to time the interview and comment on code. Or, if onsite, are given a computer with an environment unfamiliar to them.We don’t write code that way. We write code in text editors and IDEs complete with intelligent code completion, code formatting plugins, an interface to compile and execute, and today, AI assistance.Pair programming interviews should be done with the same development environment a candidate already uses. After all, if you were to pair program as coworkers, you would go to their workstation and work with them on their computer. You wouldn’t watch them fumbling around first to look up the docs for a method in a package because the coding notepad doesn’t have intelligent code completion, not know where the features (like compile) are because they’re unfamiliar with the UI, or accidentally punch in hotkeys they’re familiar with that do something else entirely.With the power of the interviewer’s own laptop, whether by them bringing it onsite, screen sharing, or using something like <a href="https://code.visualstudio.com/learn/collaboration/live-share">Visual Studio Code’s LiveShare</a> feature, you better replicate the actual environment a candidate would work in, alleving a little of the stress and interview always creates.<h4>Remove “finishing” the project as a requirement to pass</h4>Part of the anxiety of an interview is knowing that you have only so much time left to finish the problem. You know how it goes; you find out you have only ten minutes left for a one hour interview and you start panicking and making mistakes left and right.<figure><img alt="A slide from a slide deck that says: “This exercise is not about finishing. It’s about observing their strengths, debugging + coding ability, decision-making capabilities, and communication skills to see if they would be a good addition to our team.”" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*itCVy1iGtIWXtSk4twcAlg.png" /><figcaption>This was actually one of the slides in my pair programming training deck (by author)</figcaption></figure>What if we removed that pressure?In an actual pair programming environment, you may not finish what you set out to do, and that’s ok. In that type of environment, it’s important you made progress from which you can finish it on your own or the next time you can program together again.In all pair programming interview, the purpose is less about finishing and more about learning about the candidate’s thought processes and strengths, both technical and not.For all types of project-based interviews, I leave a little time at the end to ask the candidate what they would do next if this was their job. Hearing them identify what needs to be done and verbalize their solutions is more than enough to me to know they can handle it from there. Hearing that them specify what tests they would add or how to improve performance is a handful of extra credit points that go a long way.<h3>You get acquainted as potential coworkers</h3>In a traditional technical interview, the relationship between interviewer and interviewee feels much like a test administrator and a test taker. The interviewer often sits on the other end of a table (or webcam) and observes quietly as the candidate writes on a whiteboard or codes on a computer. Even with the best of intentions, often there is an anxiety-inducing power dynamic that encourages the candidate to feel inferior, even up to senior levels.The beauty of a pair programming interview is that it puts the candidate and the interviewer sitting side-by-side. Even if the candidate is driving and is still being observed, just making it clear that the interviewer is there to collaborate instead of silently judge sets the stage for a more collaborative experience.It helps shift the perception that the interviewer is a superior giving a pass/fail test to the candidate to one of potential coworkers working with each other for the first time.<a href="https://uxdesign.cc/which-type-of-pre-onsite-technical-interview-is-the-best-for-recruiting-engineers-5121ea508feb">Which type of pre-onsite technical interview is the best for recruiting engineers?</a>Back in my career when I used to write such interviews and train my coworkers to run them, I can say it’s been a pleasurable experience for both candidate and interviewer.We used to send a survey out to candidates who had taken the interview (and talk to the ones that were later hired) and the common feedback was that they felt less anxious and stressed than in many other types of interviews because of the diminished sense of inferiority as compared to the interviewer.Plus the experience is varied and interesting for the interviewer; any type of project-based interview already has variation in how people approach it, and pair programming adds human dynamics to that variation.Technical coding interviews are falling out of style in general these days, but regardless of whether you want to include coding in your interview, there are always still advantages of treating your interview more collaboratively and minimizing the power dynamic of interviewer and candidate.<a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/karomancer">Karina Chow</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=180fe4a3eb38" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://levelup.gitconnected.com/how-to-incorporate-the-best-benefits-of-pair-programming-in-your-interviews-180fe4a3eb38">How to Incorporate the Best Benefits of Pair Programming in your Interviews</a> was originally published in <a href="https://levelup.gitconnected.com">Level Up Coding</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

3 reasons as to how a collaborative mindset can offer us higher signal about whether a candidate is a good fit
Made using Midjourney
In the mid 2010s, the advantages of pair and mob programming was a popular topic. Companies like Wanelo became well known for championing pair programming as part of the development cycle, and Pivotal Labs going in so far as requiring it. Some VCs also touted its importance as a way of creating a strong collaborative corporate culture.
Now, I’m not in favor of pair programming as a requirement or replacement for solo programming, but I’m always a big fan of collaborative problem solving. In my career, pair programming in these instances did indeed help develop a level of trust and comfort between members of our teams, and increased the quality of our work.
With that in mind, it makes sense that pair programming interviews would have the same kind of benefits.
Pair programming interviews typically have a short project for the interviewer and candidate to code together, such as building the UI for a small app, designing and implementing an API, or writing a small service. In this model, instead of the candidate programming the project solo, with occasional questions to the interviewer, the candidate drives the session while the interviewer is taken along for the ride as a peer and collaborator.
Here are a few reasons as to why this approach works well:
It uncovers the candidate’s strengths
If done well, a pair programming interview should be designed to be purposefully open-ended in order to uncover the candidate’s strengths instead of focusing on their potential deficiencies.
While traditional DSA and whiteboard interviews test for logical thinking and problem solving, they often don’t paint a full picture of the candidate’s full potential. One candidate who knows how to implement binary search in their sleep may lack communication skills or domain knowledge in the languages and frameworks you need them to work in. Likewise, a well-suited candidate versed with product thinking or have a lot of domain knowledge may not have implemented FizzBuzz for over a decade and be screened right out of your job just for being slower than new grads.
Pair Programming interviews allow you to work side-by-side with your candidate and uncover strengths during the process such as

Product/UI/UX thinking
Communication skills (both technical and not)
Development style (e.g. TDD, ATDD, BDD)
General workflow
API design
Performance considerations
State management
Deep domain knowledge on language or framework
Debugging skills
Knowledge of deployment and build systems
Experience in testing, accessibility, and other underrepresented areas of knowledge in single issue interviews

Interview More Empathetically to Create More Diverse Teams
It evaluate skills in a more realistic environment
Collaborative problem solving and product planning on whiteboards with colleagues is common and often productive (and something I miss when working remotely), but we all know by now that expecting anyone to write pristine code on a whiteboard is an absolutely insane ask.
Even in a lot of other programming interviews, candidates are given a shared browser based notepad to write their code, which often have tools for the interviewer to time the interview and comment on code. Or, if onsite, are given a computer with an environment unfamiliar to them.
We don’t write code that way. We write code in text editors and IDEs complete with intelligent code completion, code formatting plugins, an interface to compile and execute, and today, AI assistance.
Pair programming interviews should be done with the same development environment a candidate already uses. After all, if you were to pair program as coworkers, you would go to their workstation and work with them on their computer. You wouldn’t watch them fumbling around first to look up the docs for a method in a package because the coding notepad doesn’t have intelligent code completion, not know where the features (like compile) are because they’re unfamiliar with the UI, or accidentally punch in hotkeys they’re familiar with that do something else entirely.
With the power of the interviewer’s own laptop, whether by them bringing it onsite, screen sharing, or using something like Visual Studio Code’s LiveShare feature, you better replicate the actual environment a candidate would work in, alleving a little of the stress and interview always creates.
Remove “finishing” the project as a requirement to pass
Part of the anxiety of an interview is knowing that you have only so much time left to finish the problem. You know how it goes; you find out you have only ten minutes left for a one hour interview and you start panicking and making mistakes left and right.
This was actually one of the slides in my pair programming training deck (by author)
What if we removed that pressure?
In an actual pair programming environment, you may not finish what you set out to do, and that’s ok. In that type of environment, it’s important you made progress from which you can finish it on your own or the next time you can program together again.
In all pair programming interview, the purpose is less about finishing and more about learning about the candidate’s thought processes and strengths, both technical and not.
For all types of project-based interviews, I leave a little time at the end to ask the candidate what they would do next if this was their job. Hearing them identify what needs to be done and verbalize their solutions is more than enough to me to know they can handle it from there. Hearing that them specify what tests they would add or how to improve performance is a handful of extra credit points that go a long way.
You get acquainted as potential coworkers
In a traditional technical interview, the relationship between interviewer and interviewee feels much like a test administrator and a test taker. The interviewer often sits on the other end of a table (or webcam) and observes quietly as the candidate writes on a whiteboard or codes on a computer. Even with the best of intentions, often there is an anxiety-inducing power dynamic that encourages the candidate to feel inferior, even up to senior levels.
The beauty of a pair programming interview is that it puts the candidate and the interviewer sitting side-by-side. Even if the candidate is driving and is still being observed, just making it clear that the interviewer is there to collaborate instead of silently judge sets the stage for a more collaborative experience.
It helps shift the perception that the interviewer is a superior giving a pass/fail test to the candidate to one of potential coworkers working with each other for the first time.
Which type of pre-onsite technical interview is the best for recruiting engineers?
Back in my career when I used to write such interviews and train my coworkers to run them, I can say it’s been a pleasurable experience for both candidate and interviewer.
We used to send a survey out to candidates who had taken the interview (and talk to the ones that were later hired) and the common feedback was that they felt less anxious and stressed than in many other types of interviews because of the diminished sense of inferiority as compared to the interviewer.
Plus the experience is varied and interesting for the interviewer; any type of project-based interview already has variation in how people approach it, and pair programming adds human dynamics to that variation.
Technical coding interviews are falling out of style in general these days, but regardless of whether you want to include coding in your interview, there are always still advantages of treating your interview more collaboratively and minimizing the power dynamic of interviewer and candidate.
Karina Chow

How to Incorporate the Best Benefits of Pair Programming in your Interviews was originally published in Level Up Coding on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How to Incorporate the Best Benefits of Pair Programming in your Interviews

<h4>Improve your self confidence and conflict</h4><figure><img alt="A photograph of a woman kneeling in a uniform, gripping another person’s wrist" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*f4S-IFGHyA-tiJmi" /><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://www.11thstreetdojo.com/">11th Street Dojo</a> (my home dojo)</figcaption></figure>Over the years, I’ve witnessed countless fitness trends emerge and fade away, from Zumba to cross-fit to machine pilates. Even Tae Kwon Do and some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) institutions have had their moments. But amidst the ever-changing landscape of fitness, one activity continues to captivate my interest: martial arts.When we think of martial arts, our minds often conjure images of awe-inspiring stunts performed by Jackie Chan or the disciplined mastery exhibited by Jet Li. Some may even envision the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and professional wrestling. While these portrayals highlight specific martial arts styles, they merely scratch the surface of the true essence of martial arts.We’ve seen Keanu Reeves master Kung Fu in “The Matrix” to dodge bullets and strike with lightning speed, and witnessed his proficiency in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in “John Wick” as he skillfully grappled opponents to their demise. While these movies feature specific martial arts styles, the true essence of martial arts runs deeper.<h4>So, what exactly is a martial art?</h4>At its core, a martial art is a technical system that not only imparts self-defense techniques but also embraces cultural traditions and encompasses philosophical aspects. It goes beyond what we witness on the big screen or in combat sports. Similar to any art form, martial arts encompass a diverse range of practitioners and styles.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*YfWPQqMMNFYlHLFI" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*WzYj5GVKq5E381gz" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/990/0*PKThxx899IZUbhSX" /><figcaption>Bruce Lee is probably the most famous martial artist, practicing his own art of Jeet Kune Do (<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/bruce-lee-s-studio-l-s-chinatown-has-reopened-after-n1070981">left</a>). President of Russia Vladamir Putin is a competitive Judo practitioner (<a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/benjamin-wittes-underestimating-vladimir-putins-martial-arts-skills">center</a>). Edoardo Mangiarotti was the best Fencer in the world in 39 olympic titles (<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/edoardo-mangiarotti-5dncnt7qv3b">right</a>)</figcaption></figure>But what can martial arts offer us beyond the thrill of looking cool or impressing our friends? Let’s delve into some of the most rewarding aspects of learning and practicing martial arts.<h3>Self Defense</h3>Self-defense is perhaps the most obvious benefit of martial arts training. In a physical assault situation, possessing even the most basic self-defense knowledge can provide a crucial advantage and potentially save lives.Most martial arts fall into the categories of striking, throwing, grappling, and/or joint locks, equipping practitioners with a repertoire of techniques applicable to real-life scenarios.Regular practice instills muscle memory, enabling individuals to instinctively draw from their arsenal of techniques when faced with an attack. Even less practical martial arts can still teach us to have a keener eye to spot trouble and react accordingly.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/0*bpkJbxjRNtBGPTpD" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/0*glcSwPV04-erWx3U" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/0*i0LUFJlmG3vNn2ww" /><figcaption>Types of joint control and throws that may be effective in a real life scenario…With enough practice (Video sources: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ActiveSelfProtection">Active Self Protection</a> YouTube channel, which analyzes martial effectiveness of responses in real life altercations)</figcaption></figure><h3>Conflict Resolution Skills</h3>The benefits extend beyond physical altercations. Martial arts also enhance our conflict resolution skills, allowing us to navigate verbal disputes with greater wisdom and composure. Just as there are different responses to physical attacks, there are various ways to address conflicts in daily life.In their book “Aikido in Everyday Life”, <a href="https://www.buecher.de/ni/search/quick_search/q/cXVlcnk9VGVycnkrRG9ic29uJmZpZWxkPXBlcnNvbmVu/">Terry Dobson</a> and <a href="https://www.buecher.de/ni/search/quick_search/q/cXVlcnk9VmljdG9yK01pbGxlciZmaWVsZD1wZXJzb25lbg==/">Victor Miller</a> noted that like stress responses, there are <a href="https://theaikidopath.wordpress.com/2015/11/01/aikido-in-everyday-life/">generally a few different responses</a> to any attack:<ol><li>Fighting back Engaging in argument, hoping to convince the other party to back down</li><li>Withdrawing Leaving the conflict unresolved and the resolution to the aggressor</li><li>Parley Engaging in a discussion to address the problem at hand</li><li>Do nothing Which can be a solution in itself, especially in time-sensitive situations</li><li>Deception Employing a deceptive strategy by appearing to respond in one way while having an ulterior motive</li><li>Aiki Seeking to harmonize with the other person, understand their perspective, show compassion, and find compromises</li></ol>Engaging in martial arts cultivates skills that transcend the physical realm, equipping practitioners with the ability to harmonize, empathize, and seek compromises, not only in combat but also in discussions and disagreements.<blockquote>“I can defeat you physically with or without a reason. But I can only defeat your mind with a reason. — <a href="https://www.ewingchun.com/sifus/jim-lau">Jim Lau</a>”</blockquote><h3>Health Benefits</h3>Engaging in martial arts as a hobby promotes overall health and well-being.<h4>Physical Health</h4>Regardless of the specific martial art you choose to pursue, they each will help you in<ul><li>Improving flexibility</li><li>Building muscle</li><li>Increasing cardio and general fitness levels</li><li>Relieving stress</li></ul>Moreover, practicing a martial art deepens your understanding of kinesiology. Techniques within martial arts demand a heightened awareness of your body’s position in relation to others and how each part of your body influences the others. When practicing with a partner, this awareness becomes even more pronounced as you discover the interconnectedness of the human body.<h4>Mental Health</h4>If you struggle with staying present or connected with your own body, certain martial arts may be ideal for you.Many Japanese martial arts, for example, incorporate meditative practices before and after training sessions, along with techniques designed to cultivate a heightened awareness of your body. The repetitive nature of forms can build muscle memory that can serve as a refuge during moments of anxiety outside the training environment. For instance, I often find solace practicing kata with my jo staff in the park when feeling particularly anxious.Some martial arts also involve auxiliary ritualistic practices, such as bringing flowers and lighting incense at the head of the place of practice, folding a uniform a specific way at the end of class, or sweeping up and mopping the floor together with your peers. <a href="https://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-health-newsletter/the-importance-of-ritual-to-mental-health">Rituals create stability and reduce anxiety in our lives</a>, so learning and practicing a few for your art can be extremely beneficial.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*OzROdiNaJ5cdGuD3.jpg" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*CmqMn5o7Ugca1RKn.jpg" /><figcaption>Small rituals can bring us piece of mind. <a href="https://warwickaikido.com/hakama-and-gi-folding/">How to fold a hakama</a> (left) <a href="https://federation-geido-tao-chi-kihon.com/soji-cleaning-of-the-dojo/">a class mopping the floor together</a> (right)</figcaption></figure><h3>Discipline</h3>The discipline, dedication, and perseverance instilled by martial arts is invaluable. You have to!<ul><li>Keep a schedule and train consistently to retain muscle memory and understanding.</li><li>Be fully present when training; it’s dangerous if you don’t! You will incur more injuries without proper concentration and a sense of being present.</li><li>Be patient. You have to seek to strike at the best time; you can’t always be impulsive. Plus, belt progression can take a long time as you can’t progress unless the instructor deems you as ready.</li><li>Always keep the student mentality, even when you’re the teacher. Getting a black belt in a martial art simply means you’ve demonstrated your dedication to the art, not that you know everything about it.</li></ul>In addition to all of that, for children, martial arts not only provide physical benefits but also fosters a respect for authority, better attention skills, and punctuality, all of which contribute to their overall development and success in various aspects of life, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30188566">including the classroom</a>.<h3>Self Confidence</h3>By improving our physical abilities and enhancing our self-assuredness, martial arts empower us to navigate through life with greater confidence.Like other athletic pursuits, martial arts helps us to develop a healthy self image through both the act of exercising, which releases feel-good hormones such as dopamine, as well as the results of exercising, such as being physically stronger both in appearance and use.It also teaches us other lessons and traits that we can take into the rest of our life that helps boost our self confidence:<ul><li>Embracing failure as temporary and a catalyst for growth. You may have lost that sparring match or may not be able to do the technique today, but with more determination and training, you will do better tomorrow.</li><li>Actively express respect and appreciation to the art, your instructor, your fellow students, the space, and yourself.</li><li>Find the perfect blend of technique and art. Martial arts are just that, martial arts. After you’ve done one for awhile, it’s amazing to start seeing how people perform the same technique differently, or take different approaches for similar effects. It’s an amazing feeling to get to a high enough level yourself where you can start expressing yourself through it as well.</li></ul><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*SgGSWL3-G-9-kCTqCvE3SQ.gif" /><figcaption>Jackie Chan is the world’s expert at taking artistic liberties in his martial arts! (Source: First Strike)</figcaption></figure><h3>Community</h3>Beyond personal growth, one of the most rewarding aspects of practicing martial arts is the vibrant community it fosters.With its fusion of philosophy, culture, spirituality, and history, martial arts attracts a fascinating mix of individuals from diverse backgrounds. These organizations often give back to the community through volunteer work and plan to attend or host tournaments and demonstrations.Martial arts also transcend borders, creating an international network. Whenever I visit a new city, my uniform has been a symbol of connection as I sought local dojos to train at. Each time, I’ve been welcomed with curiosity and open arms.In fact, every time I’ve moved to a new city, whether San Francisco, Berlin, or New York City, finding my new dojo has been a foundational step in grounding myself. Within just a couple of months of training, I find myself a sense of camaraderie among a new group of people with whom I can explore, learn from, and find my new footing with.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/960/0*pc5cN3ksI2ntksXu" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*Jy3-adQw-22PM8yt" /><figcaption>Me and some of my dojo mates in San Francisco and New York City</figcaption></figure>Amidst the ever-evolving fitness landscape, martial arts remain a timeless pursuit that never ceases to fascinate me. Japanese martial arts in particular for me have had an amazingly strong influence on me and my own physical, mental, and social development.So, if you’re seeking a new hobby that goes beyond mere physical exercise, consider immersing yourself in the world of martial arts and discover the transformative power of self-defense, conflict resolution, improved health, discipline, self-confidence, and a supportive community. Embrace the artistry and philosophy that make martial arts one of the most enriching and fulfilling endeavors you can embark upon!<a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/karomancer">Karina Chow</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=9c16f87efc05" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/counterarts/looking-for-a-new-hobby-learn-a-martial-art-9c16f87efc05">Looking for a new hobby? Learn a Martial Art</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/counterarts">Counter Arts</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Improve your self confidence and conflict
Source: 11th Street Dojo (my home dojo)
Over the years, I’ve witnessed countless fitness trends emerge and fade away, from Zumba to cross-fit to machine pilates. Even Tae Kwon Do and some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) institutions have had their moments. But amidst the ever-changing landscape of fitness, one activity continues to captivate my interest: martial arts.
When we think of martial arts, our minds often conjure images of awe-inspiring stunts performed by Jackie Chan or the disciplined mastery exhibited by Jet Li. Some may even envision the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and professional wrestling. While these portrayals highlight specific martial arts styles, they merely scratch the surface of the true essence of martial arts.
We’ve seen Keanu Reeves master Kung Fu in “The Matrix” to dodge bullets and strike with lightning speed, and witnessed his proficiency in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in “John Wick” as he skillfully grappled opponents to their demise. While these movies feature specific martial arts styles, the true essence of martial arts runs deeper.
So, what exactly is a martial art?
At its core, a martial art is a technical system that not only imparts self-defense techniques but also embraces cultural traditions and encompasses philosophical aspects. It goes beyond what we witness on the big screen or in combat sports. Similar to any art form, martial arts encompass a diverse range of practitioners and styles.
Bruce Lee is probably the most famous martial artist, practicing his own art of Jeet Kune Do (left). President of Russia Vladamir Putin is a competitive Judo practitioner (center). Edoardo Mangiarotti was the best Fencer in the world in 39 olympic titles (right)
But what can martial arts offer us beyond the thrill of looking cool or impressing our friends? Let’s delve into some of the most rewarding aspects of learning and practicing martial arts.
Self Defense
Self-defense is perhaps the most obvious benefit of martial arts training. In a physical assault situation, possessing even the most basic self-defense knowledge can provide a crucial advantage and potentially save lives.
Most martial arts fall into the categories of striking, throwing, grappling, and/or joint locks, equipping practitioners with a repertoire of techniques applicable to real-life scenarios.
Regular practice instills muscle memory, enabling individuals to instinctively draw from their arsenal of techniques when faced with an attack. Even less practical martial arts can still teach us to have a keener eye to spot trouble and react accordingly.
Types of joint control and throws that may be effective in a real life scenario…With enough practice (Video sources: Active Self Protection YouTube channel, which analyzes martial effectiveness of responses in real life altercations)
Conflict Resolution Skills
The benefits extend beyond physical altercations. Martial arts also enhance our conflict resolution skills, allowing us to navigate verbal disputes with greater wisdom and composure. Just as there are different responses to physical attacks, there are various ways to address conflicts in daily life.
In their book “Aikido in Everyday Life”, Terry Dobson and Victor Miller noted that like stress responses, there are generally a few different responses to any attack:

Fighting back
Engaging in argument, hoping to convince the other party to back down
Withdrawing
Leaving the conflict unresolved and the resolution to the aggressor
Parley 
Engaging in a discussion to address the problem at hand
Do nothing
Which can be a solution in itself, especially in time-sensitive situations
Deception 
Employing a deceptive strategy by appearing to respond in one way while having an ulterior motive
Aiki
Seeking to harmonize with the other person, understand their perspective, show compassion, and find compromises

Engaging in martial arts cultivates skills that transcend the physical realm, equipping practitioners with the ability to harmonize, empathize, and seek compromises, not only in combat but also in discussions and disagreements.
“I can defeat you physically with or without a reason. But I can only defeat your mind with a reason. — Jim Lau”
Health Benefits
Engaging in martial arts as a hobby promotes overall health and well-being.
Physical Health
Regardless of the specific martial art you choose to pursue, they each will help you in

Improving flexibility
Building muscle
Increasing cardio and general fitness levels
Relieving stress

Moreover, practicing a martial art deepens your understanding of kinesiology. Techniques within martial arts demand a heightened awareness of your body’s position in relation to others and how each part of your body influences the others. When practicing with a partner, this awareness becomes even more pronounced as you discover the interconnectedness of the human body.
Mental Health
If you struggle with staying present or connected with your own body, certain martial arts may be ideal for you.
Many Japanese martial arts, for example, incorporate meditative practices before and after training sessions, along with techniques designed to cultivate a heightened awareness of your body. The repetitive nature of forms can build muscle memory that can serve as a refuge during moments of anxiety outside the training environment. For instance, I often find solace practicing kata with my jo staff in the park when feeling particularly anxious.
Some martial arts also involve auxiliary ritualistic practices, such as bringing flowers and lighting incense at the head of the place of practice, folding a uniform a specific way at the end of class, or sweeping up and mopping the floor together with your peers. Rituals create stability and reduce anxiety in our lives, so learning and practicing a few for your art can be extremely beneficial.
Small rituals can bring us piece of mind. How to fold a hakama (left) a class mopping the floor together (right)
Discipline
The discipline, dedication, and perseverance instilled by martial arts is invaluable. You have to!

Keep a schedule and train consistently to retain muscle memory and understanding.
Be fully present when training; it’s dangerous if you don’t! You will incur more injuries without proper concentration and a sense of being present.
Be patient. You have to seek to strike at the best time; you can’t always be impulsive. Plus, belt progression can take a long time as you can’t progress unless the instructor deems you as ready.
Always keep the student mentality, even when you’re the teacher. Getting a black belt in a martial art simply means you’ve demonstrated your dedication to the art, not that you know everything about it.

In addition to all of that, for children, martial arts not only provide physical benefits but also fosters a respect for authority, better attention skills, and punctuality, all of which contribute to their overall development and success in various aspects of life, including the classroom.
Self Confidence
By improving our physical abilities and enhancing our self-assuredness, martial arts empower us to navigate through life with greater confidence.
Like other athletic pursuits, martial arts helps us to develop a healthy self image through both the act of exercising, which releases feel-good hormones such as dopamine, as well as the results of exercising, such as being physically stronger both in appearance and use.
It also teaches us other lessons and traits that we can take into the rest of our life that helps boost our self confidence:

Embracing failure as temporary and a catalyst for growth. You may have lost that sparring match or may not be able to do the technique today, but with more determination and training, you will do better tomorrow.
Actively express respect and appreciation to the art, your instructor, your fellow students, the space, and yourself.
Find the perfect blend of technique and art. Martial arts are just that, martial arts. After you’ve done one for awhile, it’s amazing to start seeing how people perform the same technique differently, or take different approaches for similar effects. It’s an amazing feeling to get to a high enough level yourself where you can start expressing yourself through it as well.
Jackie Chan is the world’s expert at taking artistic liberties in his martial arts! (Source: First Strike)
Community
Beyond personal growth, one of the most rewarding aspects of practicing martial arts is the vibrant community it fosters.
With its fusion of philosophy, culture, spirituality, and history, martial arts attracts a fascinating mix of individuals from diverse backgrounds. These organizations often give back to the community through volunteer work and plan to attend or host tournaments and demonstrations.
Martial arts also transcend borders, creating an international network. Whenever I visit a new city, my uniform has been a symbol of connection as I sought local dojos to train at. Each time, I’ve been welcomed with curiosity and open arms.
In fact, every time I’ve moved to a new city, whether San Francisco, Berlin, or New York City, finding my new dojo has been a foundational step in grounding myself. Within just a couple of months of training, I find myself a sense of camaraderie among a new group of people with whom I can explore, learn from, and find my new footing with.
Me and some of my dojo mates in San Francisco and New York City
Amidst the ever-evolving fitness landscape, martial arts remain a timeless pursuit that never ceases to fascinate me. Japanese martial arts in particular for me have had an amazingly strong influence on me and my own physical, mental, and social development.
So, if you’re seeking a new hobby that goes beyond mere physical exercise, consider immersing yourself in the world of martial arts and discover the transformative power of self-defense, conflict resolution, improved health, discipline, self-confidence, and a supportive community. Embrace the artistry and philosophy that make martial arts one of the most enriching and fulfilling endeavors you can embark upon!
Karina Chow

Looking for a new hobby? Learn a Martial Art was originally published in Counter Arts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Looking for a new hobby? Learn a Martial Art

<h3>Unmasking the Depths of Persona 5</h3><h4>Exploring cognitive distortions, Jungian archetypes, and choice architecture in the award-winning JRPG</h4><figure><img alt="Illustration of a top hat in front of a swirl labeled “Make a choice”" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/960/1*hwirRpBYbJSNkFSUrqMt_Q.jpeg" /><figcaption>Image by author (using concept art and a variety of fonts)</figcaption></figure><a href="https://persona.atlus.com/p5r/?lang=en">Persona 5</a>, a Japanese role-playing video game released in 2016 on the PS4, offers players a captivating experience that intertwines game design, Jungian psychology, and choice architecture. From its exploration of Jungian concepts to its aesthetic choices and innovative menu design, Persona 5 offers players a rich and immersive experience that challenges conventional gaming norms.Players assume the role of a Japanese high school student who goes on adventures to overthrow authority figures that abuse their power. The game introduces a parallel dimension called the Metaverse, which mirrors our own reality.In this Metaverse, the desires, essences, and hearts of individuals are manifested as tangible entities. If one changes those manifestations in the Metaverse, it changes the person in our own universe.Alongside with his fellow teammates, aptly called Phantom Thieves, the protagonist steals corrupt desires and insecurities that have manifested as stealable treasures in the Metaverse. Doing so changes hearts of the corrupt in our universe, helping them see their wrongs, and ensures they will no longer hurt others.Besides amazing art and fun and zany characters, at its core, Persona 5 is a game rooted in psychological principles like, wait for it, personas. It also goes deep into other Jungian concepts as well as cognitive and behavioral psychology, choice architecture, tarot archetypes, yin and yang, and many more things.Let’s explore some psychology concepts and see how they’re directly tied to the game.<h3>Self, Persona, and Shadow Jungian Archetypes</h3>Swiss psychologist Carl Jung introduced the idea of <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-jungs-4-major-archetypes-2795439">archetypes</a>, innate parts within us that dictate our behavior and way of thinking. He postulated that they were passed down from our ancestors and are part of a greater collective unconscious.<figure><img alt="An illustration of a circle in which the center is labeled “Self” while the top is labeled “Outer world, conscious” and includes the Persona while the bottom half is labeled “Inner world, collective unconscious” and includes the Shadow" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/458/0*_Ptwu8M27Q95iukg.jpg" /><figcaption>The Jungian archetypes illustrated (Diagram made by <a href="https://jungchicago.org/blog/product/hall-views-self-315-mp3/">James Hall, MD</a>).</figcaption></figure>According to Jung, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4714566">Self</a> is an archetype that represents the unified unconsciousness and consciousness of an individual. That is, the true nature of the individual via their personality, sense of agency, awareness, and ability to perceive the world as it is. A person who is in tune with their Self archetype feels free to be themselves without judgment and has achieved harmony between their different unconscious and conscious parts of their identity.Jung often represented the self as a circle, square, or mandala.Disharmony within the system of Self often manifests as negative behaviors such as extreme judgment of others, short tempers, abusive behavior, and more. In Jung’s mind, finding the balance between all the archetypes and parts of oneself leads to individuation and harmony.<figure><img alt="A Carl Jung quote: “The persona is a complicated system of relations between teh individual consciousness and scoeity, fittingly enough a kind of mask designed on one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other, to conceal the true nature of the individual." src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*09dmB9UOd4arREkiPvlm9Q.gif" /><figcaption>Image by author (quote by Carl Jung)</figcaption></figure>Persona archetypes are the masks we wear to conform to societal expectations, often hiding our Self. Imagine how your personality might change depending on whether you’re interacting at work or with your parents.The characters have masks in the Metaverse to remove in order to awaken their inner selves and express their true identities, challenging the constraints imposed by Japanese society.<figure><img alt="Animated gif of a blonde video game character ripping off a cat mask and transforming into a red latex suit" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*nZmAnpaeljdyPMO22Y8dAg.gif" /><figcaption>In-game scene of one of the characters removing her mask to reveal aspects of herself normally hidden from Japanese society</figcaption></figure>In this same vein, Shadow archetypes are the parts of ourselves we repress when we keep those masks on. Not integrating our shadow into our consciousness may cause us to be overtaken by shame, unhinged desires, or shortcomings.Jung theorized that when we courageously face our shadows, we can tap into their vital energy and channel it in positive ways.This is beautifully demonstrated in the game by multiple characters who repress their shadows so deeply, they emerge with a vengeance often causing those characters to fall into vices and abuse those around them.The first of such characters is a high school gym teacher that is unable to reach his true self and dons the persona of a responsible teacher at school. His shadow, obsessed with success and sex, reveals itself from between the cracks through physical and sexual abuse of his students.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*sl7jiZ2DnQS5fy81AJpjxw.png" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/551/1*bxUb21b-FtnytM3rCOykzQ.png" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/560/1*oZN213slRHUDrhHFswnFSQ.png" /><figcaption>The first target in the game is an abusive high school volleyball coach. From left-to-right, the Persona, the Shadow, then Self. (src: screenshots from game)</figcaption></figure>Other characters suffer from depression or have a savior complex, their shadows taking much different and less grandiose forms.In Jungian psychology, owning a shadow is a humbling process that helps us become more whole, authentic, and integrated. Thus in the game, you work toward dethroning or healing suffering characters’ shadow self to restore their conscience so that they may right wrongs, face judgment, and/or build a better life.<a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-jungs-4-major-archetypes-2795439">Which Jungian Archetype Are You?</a><h3>Cognitive Distortions</h3>In the 1980’s, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_D._Burns">David D. Burns</a>, and many other contributors to the formation of the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy modalities, conceptualized the idea of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_distortion">cognitive distortions</a>: thoughts fueled by negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, and desire. According to these theories, these perpetual thought patterns cause us to interpret reality inaccurately.The way the Metaverse in the game is portrayed is that of the cognitive distortions of characters suffering from these emotions. Even the game itself calls them <a href="https://moesucks.com/2019/01/01/persona-5-the-animation-dark-sun-this-game-just-never-ends/">distortions</a>.Included in these distortions are the way that people view themselves and others, which are highly reflected in the Metaverse. A person’s hidden desires and corruption, normally hidden in real life, are on full display in the distorted Metaverse universe as fantastical, and sometimes horrific versions, of the real world. For many of the abusive characters, this means seeing others as slaves, servants, or animals and seeing themselves as rulers, celebrities, or dictators.Characters facing other negative emotions like depression or anxiety may see the world as frightening or barren.Let’s return to that same gym teacher example. In the Metaverse, his cognitive distortions cause him to see himself as a king, the school gym his castle, and his students/team his slaves.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*wRqUCFa6rrzMlO5O" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*QjM5DxwmkBHexIE4.jpg" /><figcaption>The teacher views the school as his castle and one of his students as his lover (src: screenshots from game)</figcaption></figure><a href="https://medium.com/invisible-illness/what-therapy-is-best-for-negative-thought-patterns-and-rumination-e64157b1f82b">How to Address Negative Thought Patterns and Rumination</a><h3>Game Design and Choice Architecture</h3><a href="https://insidebe.com/articles/choice-architecture/">Choice Architecture</a> is a type of design that utilizes psychological principles to present choices in the most optimal way to users. The presentation can be designed with good or nefarious purposes in mind, whether to lessen the cognitive load for the user or to coerce the user to make a specific, predetermined choice.These forms of coercion or encouragement to make a choice are called nudges in this framework.<h4>Categories in Menu Design</h4>One of the aspects in choice architecture is the usage of categories. Categories at a high level don’t just allow users to navigate more easily, but it can also help nudge them in a desired direction.You might craft your categories not based on simple facts but based on desired user actions. For example, Netflix chose to encourage browsing over search, then categorized not only based on genre but on viewing patterns. “Bingeworthy TV Shows”. “Critically Acclaimed Shows”. “Familiar Favorites”. This style of categorization led to <a href="https://choicehacking.com/2021/02/24/five-ways-netflix-used-psychology-to-become-the-worlds-biggest-streaming-platform/">over 80%</a> of Netflix content watched as a result of its recommendation engine and helped Netflix become the top streaming company.Persona 5 presents an interesting take on menu design and information delivery, addressing the common issue of overwhelming menus in RPGs. The game’s menu systems are meticulously designed to move users along.Unlike games such as Pokémon and Final Fantasy 15, Persona 5 organizes items into categories, allowing for efficient navigation and reducing choice overload.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/383/1*FbGVULm4ewiiwyOjMADi2g.gif" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/520/1*iyjVf_QQfn6AOsTd9u1nlA.gif" /><figcaption>Many games’ menus rarely have any categorization at all. Persona 5 is not only snazzy but makes it dead simple to understand where everything is. (src: game footage from Pokémon and Persona 5)</figcaption></figure>The game’s visually engaging menus, coupled with clever use of fonts, colors, and animations, transform the menu experience into an enjoyable part of the gameplay.<h4>Simplify Choices to Preserve the Preciousness of Time</h4>Reducing the number of options reduces cognitive load for users. This can already be done with introducing categories, but when that is not possible, simply reducing the number of options shown can greatly encourage users making a choice and reducing regret.In 2000, <a href="https://hbr.org/2006/06/more-isnt-always-better">Researchers at Swarthmore College</a> found that shoppers were far less likely to make a purchase given the choice among 24 different gourmet jams than they were when given 6. They also found that the shoppers who chose among 24 were much more likely to regret their purchase. This exact phenomenon <a href="https://nautil.us/the-problem-with-modern-romance-is-too-much-choice-236135/">also happens in online and app dating</a>.Persona 5 introduces a calendar system, where players must complete the story within a set timeframe. Each day in the game has only two time slots with a handful of activities to fill them with, limiting the actions players can take.This mechanism adds a layer of realism and urgency, forcing players to prioritize their activities carefully and strategize their next moves.The number of choices can be overwhelming, though luckily the game can be forgiving if you don’t play optimally. That said, the game makes it very clear that you’ll only have one go around, which increases the chances of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buyer%27s_remorse">buyer’s remorse</a>”.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/984/1*pjZmxiObhWEATVlF1K0Vqw.png" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*E46pDjcKEuCv8xhd0sfjxw.png" /><figcaption>The game warns you about the consequences of making a wrong choice and has perhaps TOO many ways to spend your time (src: game screenshot and graphic made by author)</figcaption></figure><a href="https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/choose-carefully/">Choose Carefully | Hidden Brain Media</a><h3>A New Fan is Born</h3>Though I’m normally not a fan of JRPGs, turn-based combat, or anime, as a gamer and psychology junkie, this game quickly climbed up my list of favorite games of all time.So much so, that I presented the above analysis in costume for the final for my NYU graduate class “<a href="https://www.coursicle.com/nyu/courses/ITPGGT/2161/">Game Design and the Psychology of Choice</a>” taught by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennylimmy/">Jenny Lim</a>:<figure><img alt="Photograph of a woman in a bright red wig wearing a mask setting up a presentation on a large screen" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*s6qCjqwh4P5FMN-Y" /></figure>From its exploration of Jungian psychology to its thoughtful menu design and calendar system, Persona 5 offers players a captivating experience that forces them to grapple with complex decisions.By seamlessly integrating these elements, the game immerses players in a deeply human and flawed world in which every choice matters, ultimately creating a satisfying and thought-provoking gameplay experience.<a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/karomancer">Karina Chow</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=3ee51e5f82b" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/counterarts/the-psychology-behind-persona-5-3ee51e5f82b">Exploring the Psychology Behind Persona 5</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/counterarts">Counter Arts</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Unmasking the Depths of Persona 5
Exploring cognitive distortions, Jungian archetypes, and choice architecture in the award-winning JRPG
Image by author (using concept art and a variety of fonts)
Persona 5, a Japanese role-playing video game released in 2016 on the PS4, offers players a captivating experience that intertwines game design, Jungian psychology, and choice architecture. From its exploration of Jungian concepts to its aesthetic choices and innovative menu design, Persona 5 offers players a rich and immersive experience that challenges conventional gaming norms.
Players assume the role of a Japanese high school student who goes on adventures to overthrow authority figures that abuse their power. The game introduces a parallel dimension called the Metaverse, which mirrors our own reality.
In this Metaverse, the desires, essences, and hearts of individuals are manifested as tangible entities. If one changes those manifestations in the Metaverse, it changes the person in our own universe.
Alongside with his fellow teammates, aptly called Phantom Thieves, the protagonist steals corrupt desires and insecurities that have manifested as stealable treasures in the Metaverse. Doing so changes hearts of the corrupt in our universe, helping them see their wrongs, and ensures they will no longer hurt others.
Besides amazing art and fun and zany characters, at its core, Persona 5 is a game rooted in psychological principles like, wait for it, personas. It also goes deep into other Jungian concepts as well as cognitive and behavioral psychology, choice architecture, tarot archetypes, yin and yang, and many more things.
Let’s explore some psychology concepts and see how they’re directly tied to the game.
Self, Persona, and Shadow Jungian Archetypes
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung introduced the idea of archetypes, innate parts within us that dictate our behavior and way of thinking. He postulated that they were passed down from our ancestors and are part of a greater collective unconscious.
The Jungian archetypes illustrated (Diagram made by James Hall, MD).
According to Jung, Self is an archetype that represents the unified unconsciousness and consciousness of an individual. That is, the true nature of the individual via their personality, sense of agency, awareness, and ability to perceive the world as it is. A person who is in tune with their Self archetype feels free to be themselves without judgment and has achieved harmony between their different unconscious and conscious parts of their identity.
Jung often represented the self as a circle, square, or mandala.
Disharmony within the system of Self often manifests as negative behaviors such as extreme judgment of others, short tempers, abusive behavior, and more. In Jung’s mind, finding the balance between all the archetypes and parts of oneself leads to individuation and harmony.
Image by author (quote by Carl Jung)
Persona archetypes are the masks we wear to conform to societal expectations, often hiding our Self. Imagine how your personality might change depending on whether you’re interacting at work or with your parents.
The characters have masks in the Metaverse to remove in order to awaken their inner selves and express their true identities, challenging the constraints imposed by Japanese society.
In-game scene of one of the characters removing her mask to reveal aspects of herself normally hidden from Japanese society
In this same vein, Shadow archetypes are the parts of ourselves we repress when we keep those masks on. Not integrating our shadow into our consciousness may cause us to be overtaken by shame, unhinged desires, or shortcomings.
Jung theorized that when we courageously face our shadows, we can tap into their vital energy and channel it in positive ways.
This is beautifully demonstrated in the game by multiple characters who repress their shadows so deeply, they emerge with a vengeance often causing those characters to fall into vices and abuse those around them.
The first of such characters is a high school gym teacher that is unable to reach his true self and dons the persona of a responsible teacher at school. His shadow, obsessed with success and sex, reveals itself from between the cracks through physical and sexual abuse of his students.
The first target in the game is an abusive high school volleyball coach. From left-to-right, the Persona, the Shadow, then Self. (src: screenshots from game)
Other characters suffer from depression or have a savior complex, their shadows taking much different and less grandiose forms.
In Jungian psychology, owning a shadow is a humbling process that helps us become more whole, authentic, and integrated. Thus in the game, you work toward dethroning or healing suffering characters’ shadow self to restore their conscience so that they may right wrongs, face judgment, and/or build a better life.
Which Jungian Archetype Are You?
Cognitive Distortions
In the 1980’s, David D. Burns, and many other contributors to the formation of the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy modalities, conceptualized the idea of cognitive distortions: thoughts fueled by negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, and desire. According to these theories, these perpetual thought patterns cause us to interpret reality inaccurately.
The way the Metaverse in the game is portrayed is that of the cognitive distortions of characters suffering from these emotions. Even the game itself calls them distortions.
Included in these distortions are the way that people view themselves and others, which are highly reflected in the Metaverse. A person’s hidden desires and corruption, normally hidden in real life, are on full display in the distorted Metaverse universe as fantastical, and sometimes horrific versions, of the real world. For many of the abusive characters, this means seeing others as slaves, servants, or animals and seeing themselves as rulers, celebrities, or dictators.
Characters facing other negative emotions like depression or anxiety may see the world as frightening or barren.
Let’s return to that same gym teacher example. In the Metaverse, his cognitive distortions cause him to see himself as a king, the school gym his castle, and his students/team his slaves.
The teacher views the school as his castle and one of his students as his lover (src: screenshots from game)
How to Address Negative Thought Patterns and Rumination
Game Design and Choice Architecture
Choice Architecture is a type of design that utilizes psychological principles to present choices in the most optimal way to users. The presentation can be designed with good or nefarious purposes in mind, whether to lessen the cognitive load for the user or to coerce the user to make a specific, predetermined choice.
These forms of coercion or encouragement to make a choice are called nudges in this framework.
Categories in Menu Design
One of the aspects in choice architecture is the usage of categories. Categories at a high level don’t just allow users to navigate more easily, but it can also help nudge them in a desired direction.
You might craft your categories not based on simple facts but based on desired user actions. For example, Netflix chose to encourage browsing over search, then categorized not only based on genre but on viewing patterns. “Bingeworthy TV Shows”. “Critically Acclaimed Shows”. “Familiar Favorites”. This style of categorization led to over 80% of Netflix content watched as a result of its recommendation engine and helped Netflix become the top streaming company.
Persona 5 presents an interesting take on menu design and information delivery, addressing the common issue of overwhelming menus in RPGs. The game’s menu systems are meticulously designed to move users along.
Unlike games such as Pokémon and Final Fantasy 15, Persona 5 organizes items into categories, allowing for efficient navigation and reducing choice overload.
Many games’ menus rarely have any categorization at all. Persona 5 is not only snazzy but makes it dead simple to understand where everything is. (src: game footage from Pokémon and Persona 5)
The game’s visually engaging menus, coupled with clever use of fonts, colors, and animations, transform the menu experience into an enjoyable part of the gameplay.
Simplify Choices to Preserve the Preciousness of Time
Reducing the number of options reduces cognitive load for users. This can already be done with introducing categories, but when that is not possible, simply reducing the number of options shown can greatly encourage users making a choice and reducing regret.
In 2000, Researchers at Swarthmore College found that shoppers were far less likely to make a purchase given the choice among 24 different gourmet jams than they were when given 6. They also found that the shoppers who chose among 24 were much more likely to regret their purchase. This exact phenomenon also happens in online and app dating.
Persona 5 introduces a calendar system, where players must complete the story within a set timeframe. Each day in the game has only two time slots with a handful of activities to fill them with, limiting the actions players can take.
This mechanism adds a layer of realism and urgency, forcing players to prioritize their activities carefully and strategize their next moves.
The number of choices can be overwhelming, though luckily the game can be forgiving if you don’t play optimally. That said, the game makes it very clear that you’ll only have one go around, which increases the chances of “buyer’s remorse”.
The game warns you about the consequences of making a wrong choice and has perhaps TOO many ways to spend your time (src: game screenshot and graphic made by author)
Choose Carefully | Hidden Brain Media
A New Fan is Born
Though I’m normally not a fan of JRPGs, turn-based combat, or anime, as a gamer and psychology junkie, this game quickly climbed up my list of favorite games of all time.
So much so, that I presented the above analysis in costume for the final for my NYU graduate class “Game Design and the Psychology of Choice” taught by Jenny Lim:

From its exploration of Jungian psychology to its thoughtful menu design and calendar system, Persona 5 offers players a captivating experience that forces them to grapple with complex decisions.
By seamlessly integrating these elements, the game immerses players in a deeply human and flawed world in which every choice matters, ultimately creating a satisfying and thought-provoking gameplay experience.
Karina Chow

Exploring the Psychology Behind Persona 5 was originally published in Counter Arts on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Exploring the Psychology Behind Persona 5

<h4>Rediscovering authenticity and unconventional thinking in a world obsessed with sameness and scalability.</h4><figure><img alt="A surreal MC Escher inspired illustration of a man with strangely shaped objects in his head and around him" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Y351xim6ygsVsEPoh2lFGw.png" /><figcaption>Made using Midjourney + Photoshop</figcaption></figure>If you have done any product work in the last decade or two, you have inevitably heard of the <a href="https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/getting-started-with-design-thinking">Design Thinking</a> ideology. Hell, you might have become a design-thinking zealot and championed it in your teams.It makes sense if so. By all accounts, it’s a great user-centric ideology.At its core, design thinking aims to solve problems by understanding the user’s needs, challenging assumptions, redefining problems, and creating innovative solutions to prototype and test.It does this in six phases— empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and implement — which together represent a non-linear cycle for tackling challenges creatively and iteratively:<figure><img alt="The 6 Design Thinking Phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and implement" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*coV5d5QVTIMI0Zs6.png" /><figcaption>The <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-thinking/">Nielsen Norman Group’s famous Design Thinking cycle</a></figcaption></figure>The concept of Design Thinking has been hailed as a guiding principle, offering a structured approach to problem-solving.However, the implementation and understanding of the process has diverged from the original magic and effectiveness it had at IDEO. Today, Design Thinking has shown its limitations, and in fact, I’d argue that this current, hyped up implementation limits our own ability to design in innovative ways.<h3>The Limitations of Design Thinking Today</h3>When I was a student learning Design Thinking in my Human-Computer Interaction program, we were taught to spend most of our time in the first half of the cycle, partaking in team-wide sessions to best understand our potential user base and to ideate as many solutions as we could.Ideation was boundless and no idea was bad. In my opinion, divergent thinking exercises is where good and innovative design truly happens.However, today many companies that have bought into the hype cycle don’t truly understand the value of spending the time (and thus resources) on these exercises and will rush their way through. They want to proclaim they implement the process, but choose the cheapest path instead of good and innovative user-centric design as their guiding light.Critics argue that due to this, t<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/1663558/design-thinking-is-a-failed-experiment-so-whats-next">he process has been oversimplified and commoditized</a>, often at the expense of genuine innovation and user experience.<h4>Linear Thinking</h4>This growing skepticism of today’s Design Thinking was famously encapsulated by Natasha Jen’s talk titled “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8gjDsW3lsY">Design thinking is Bullsh*t</a>”. Jen, a partner at Pentagram, criticizes design thinking for reducing a complex creative process into a prescriptive, step-by-step procedure that can be blindly applied by anyone. She argues that this cookie-cutter approach neglects the nuanced, critical thinking that true design requires.She notes how designers in the past, prior to the digitization of everything, usually had studios strewn with gadgets, art, and objects that encouraged exploration and curiosity. The thinking behind design wasn’t so methodical nor as linear, which afforded the opportunity for “out-there” ideas to have a chance to take hold and flourish.<a href="https://sts-news.medium.com/design-thinking-is-kind-of-like-syphilis-its-contagious-and-rots-your-brains-842ed078af29">Design Thinking is Kind of Like Syphilis — It’s Contagious and Rots Your Brains</a><h4>Financialization</h4>As aforementioned, the ideology has been hijacked by businessmen.The 6-phase cycle is an attractive methodology to businessmen looking to make profit from easily codified processes. This changed the metric of success from good UX and user satisfaction to eyeballs and revenue.The UX Collective in their 2024 issue of “<a href="https://trends.uxdesign.cc/">The State of UX</a>” describes this as the financialization of design, going insofar to say that instead of thinking of user flows, we now focus on cash flows:<blockquote>“In a world where design is used to appease shareholders and boost stock prices, advocating for users’ interests can become an afterthought.”</blockquote>What tests well is often what users are already accustomed to, and what businesses want is whatever is easiest to produce and scale.Of course, neither of those things are bad on their own, but that type of thinking cause us to miss new and unique solutions. When you always reach for the obvious answer, what you’re left with is a sterile world in which everything looks and feels the same.<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/09/1067821/design-thinking-retrospective-what-went-wrong/">Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?</a><h4>Lack of Critique</h4>In most design disciplines, receiving candid feedback in the form of formal <a href="https://library.gv.com/guide-to-design-critique-86ebf499bed5">critiques</a> is an important part of the design process. In architecture and industrial design, this is often done in a <a href="https://www.archisoup.com/architecture-pin-up">pin-up design review</a>.Design Thinking is <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-critiques/">supposed to nclude quite a bit of critiquing</a>, but the disciplined formal critiquing culture is now fading into obscurity, with user test results often serving as the only guiding light for many companies.Just as some companies aren’t willing to account for proper product QA in their project timeline estimates, or take Scrum at face value and don’t change it to meet their individual needs, many don’t account for critique and iteration time.Without critical analysis and debate, the process risks becoming a one-size-fits-all solution that fails to account for the unique challenges and contexts of different problems.<h3>Introducing Absurd Thinking</h3>In fall of 2023, I took a class called “<a href="https://www.coursicle.com/nyu/courses/ITPGGT/2052/">Designing the Absurd</a>” at New York University, taught by <a href="https://juxtapix.cargo.site/">Pedro Oliveira</a>. This industrial design class set out to challenge our ideas of what makes a good design and good design practice in the format of designing out-there solutions for absurd problems.<h4>Dare to go against convention</h4>Absurd Thinking challenges conventions. It attempts to break from the usual and critique the normal by making, doing and learning.Unlike Design Thinking, it focuses purely on ideation and does not include a methodology or 6-phase cycle but is rather the philosophy that non-traditional approaches can lead to creative and unusual outcomes. It advocates for a shift in the paradigm of success, urging designers to explore uncharted territories, liberated from the constraints of efficiency and traditional measures of success.The term was used by Alan Wexler in his book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Allan-Wexler-Absurd-Thinking-Between-Design/dp/3037785160">Absurd Thinking: Between Art and Design</a>”, where he famously said:<blockquote>“The tool is what we use to think with. Therefore, if you want to change your thinking, change the tool.”</blockquote>We’ve all heard that <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3053909/the-science-of-why-scarcity-makes-us-more-creative">scarcity breeds creativity</a>. Just think of <a href="https://www.metv.com/lists/the-12-coolest-craziest-contraptions-macgyver-ever-made">MacGyver</a>, a television character so well known for improvising wild, yet functional, contraptions from random objects that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34075407">his name became a verb</a>.For Allan Wexler, he tested his own theory by designing and constructing a chair every day for 15 days. As his iterations continued on, he challenged what he thought a chair to be and played with different fabrication techniques, resulting in very unique objects:<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*pdB4jB7qxRw6Uee-.png" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*XlMZRSvBgk0BjoO0" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/614/0*AITGbjfA7kdOLdXP.jpg" /><figcaption>Examples of <a href="https://www.allanwexlerstudio.com/projects/chairs">Allan Wexler’s Chairs</a></figcaption></figure>Changing your metric of success and the tools you use, and challenging the beliefs of what you need to succeed and the problem you’re trying to solve will inevitably change how you approach your designs.<h4>Designing for the future</h4>Another issue is oftentimes today, we fall into trends (<a href="https://medium.com/better-marketing/why-these-quirky-cartoons-quietly-took-over-the-marketing-world-d3ce108c852e">corporate memphis</a> anyone?) and <a href="https://www.sodareport.com/2020/editorials/emerging-trends-and-tech/digital-sameness">design based on previous experiences</a> instead of aiming to design for future ones.Enter Design Fiction, an ideating practice in which designers look into the future to explore and reflect upon the potential worlds they are creating. The practice of design fiction is similar to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_design">speculative design</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_design">critical design</a> in that it uses props and design artifacts to pose questions about the future we want to design.Unlike other types of design, Design Fiction is not seeking to solve a specific problem or create a specific and probable future, but rather explore and brainstorm possible futures through the lens of implications of our future culture. It looks at the largest possible subset of the future.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*nJV3hsJFGKM1IC8o.jpg" /><figcaption>From a really great collection of visuals from <a href="https://www.epmid.com/Mapping-Speculative-Design">Mapping Speculative Design</a></figcaption></figure>The exercise of partaking in design fiction allows us to step outside of today’s business and scientific constraints. These fictitious inventions, though not possible at the time, can help us envision our possible futures and help shape the direction we want to go in.If you’re thinking “this seems like a futile exercise”, consider the following:<ul><li>In 1964, Star Trek introduced the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicator_(Star_Trek)">communicator</a>, a voice communication device that allowed people to communicate with others with communicators and with ships. The first flip phone was in 1996.</li><li>In 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey depicted a video device that resembles a modern day tablet. The iPad came out in 2010, and Apple sued Samsung over the tablet patent, and Samsung claimed that the <a href="https://www.pcworld.com/article/482158/samsung_claims_tablet_like_device_in_2001_a_space_odyssey_invalidates_apple_patent.html">movie invented the idea first</a>.</li><li>In 2015, IKEA had a design fiction exercise in which they <a href="https://ikea.nearfuturelaboratory.com/">created a catalog of IoT (Internet of Things)-driven future products</a>. It included products like smart refrigerators that order food automatically and furniture holograms to help you create your ideal layout. Oh, and in 2017 they released their <a href="https://www.ikea.com/global/en/newsroom/innovation/ikea-launches-ikea-place-a-new-app-that-allows-people-to-virtually-place-furniture-in-their-home-170912/">Places app to essentially do the latter with AR</a></li></ul><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*uwSITkqQNAgeTFbV" /></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*qaPehzxdTFP0OaSf.jpg" /><figcaption>Tell me these don’t look like the precursors to flip phones and tablets (All image sources linked in the bullet list above)</figcaption></figure>All of these designs were likely seen as absurd or near-impossible at the time they were created, but they’ve all served (and are still serving) as inspiration and even blueprints for the future we’re all heading toward.I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of reinventing the wheel regularly, whether it’s styling a button for the 500th time or being told “we want this onboarding flow to be like Y’s, but for X”.The most exciting design problems I see today include how we’ll use <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mycocrete-new-material-made-of-fungi-hopes-to-replace-concrete-in-construction-projects/">new materials in architecture</a> and <a href="https://lampoonmagazine.com/article/2021/11/20/lab-grown-leather-modern-meadow-vitralabs/">industrial design</a>, <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-heuristics-virtual-reality/">determine new design heuristics for XR</a>, and craft the future of GUIs in a world driven by AI.I see us as being on another inflection point, one filled with innovative new inventions ranging from new materials to new tools that will require us as designers to create new design ideologies and methodologies.Design Thinking isn’t dead.The ideology still holds and the methodology provides a structure and value in how it encourages critical thinking and user-centric design, but it has since been hijacked by businessmen with much of the ideation phase morphed to meet specific business needs.Now is the time to think absurdly and reintroduce it to our processes.Doing so is an invitation to break the shackles of convention and to infuse creativity, authenticity, and unpredictability back into the core of design. By championing the absurd, we can rediscover the essence of design, ushering in an era of genuine innovation and distinctive experiences.Please. I don’t want every future GUI to simply be a chat box.<a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/karomancer">Karina Chow</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=6f230601679a" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://uxdesign.cc/embracing-the-absurd-in-your-design-practices-6f230601679a">Embracing the absurd in your design practices</a> was originally published in <a href="https://uxdesign.cc">UX Collective</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Rediscovering authenticity and unconventional thinking in a world obsessed with sameness and scalability.
Made using Midjourney + Photoshop
If you have done any product work in the last decade or two, you have inevitably heard of the Design Thinking ideology. Hell, you might have become a design-thinking zealot and championed it in your teams.
It makes sense if so. By all accounts, it’s a great user-centric ideology.
At its core, design thinking aims to solve problems by understanding the user’s needs, challenging assumptions, redefining problems, and creating innovative solutions to prototype and test.
It does this in six phases— empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and implement — which together represent a non-linear cycle for tackling challenges creatively and iteratively:
The Nielsen Norman Group’s famous Design Thinking cycle
The concept of Design Thinking has been hailed as a guiding principle, offering a structured approach to problem-solving.
However, the implementation and understanding of the process has diverged from the original magic and effectiveness it had at IDEO. Today, Design Thinking has shown its limitations, and in fact, I’d argue that this current, hyped up implementation limits our own ability to design in innovative ways.
The Limitations of Design Thinking Today
When I was a student learning Design Thinking in my Human-Computer Interaction program, we were taught to spend most of our time in the first half of the cycle, partaking in team-wide sessions to best understand our potential user base and to ideate as many solutions as we could.
Ideation was boundless and no idea was bad. In my opinion, divergent thinking exercises is where good and innovative design truly happens.
However, today many companies that have bought into the hype cycle don’t truly understand the value of spending the time (and thus resources) on these exercises and will rush their way through. They want to proclaim they implement the process, but choose the cheapest path instead of good and innovative user-centric design as their guiding light.
Critics argue that due to this, the process has been oversimplified and commoditized, often at the expense of genuine innovation and user experience.
Linear Thinking
This growing skepticism of today’s Design Thinking was famously encapsulated by Natasha Jen’s talk titled “Design thinking is Bullsh*t”. Jen, a partner at Pentagram, criticizes design thinking for reducing a complex creative process into a prescriptive, step-by-step procedure that can be blindly applied by anyone. She argues that this cookie-cutter approach neglects the nuanced, critical thinking that true design requires.
She notes how designers in the past, prior to the digitization of everything, usually had studios strewn with gadgets, art, and objects that encouraged exploration and curiosity. The thinking behind design wasn’t so methodical nor as linear, which afforded the opportunity for “out-there” ideas to have a chance to take hold and flourish.
Design Thinking is Kind of Like Syphilis — It’s Contagious and Rots Your Brains
Financialization
As aforementioned, the ideology has been hijacked by businessmen.
The 6-phase cycle is an attractive methodology to businessmen looking to make profit from easily codified processes. This changed the metric of success from good UX and user satisfaction to eyeballs and revenue.
The UX Collective in their 2024 issue of “The State of UX” describes this as the financialization of design, going insofar to say that instead of thinking of user flows, we now focus on cash flows:
“In a world where design is used to appease shareholders and boost stock prices, advocating for users’ interests can become an afterthought.”
What tests well is often what users are already accustomed to, and what businesses want is whatever is easiest to produce and scale.
Of course, neither of those things are bad on their own, but that type of thinking cause us to miss new and unique solutions. When you always reach for the obvious answer, what you’re left with is a sterile world in which everything looks and feels the same.
Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?
Lack of Critique
In most design disciplines, receiving candid feedback in the form of formal critiques is an important part of the design process. In architecture and industrial design, this is often done in a pin-up design review.
Design Thinking is supposed to nclude quite a bit of critiquing, but the disciplined formal critiquing culture is now fading into obscurity, with user test results often serving as the only guiding light for many companies.
Just as some companies aren’t willing to account for proper product QA in their project timeline estimates, or take Scrum at face value and don’t change it to meet their individual needs, many don’t account for critique and iteration time.
Without critical analysis and debate, the process risks becoming a one-size-fits-all solution that fails to account for the unique challenges and contexts of different problems.
Introducing Absurd Thinking
In fall of 2023, I took a class called “Designing the Absurd” at New York University, taught by Pedro Oliveira. This industrial design class set out to challenge our ideas of what makes a good design and good design practice in the format of designing out-there solutions for absurd problems.
Dare to go against convention
Absurd Thinking challenges conventions. It attempts to break from the usual and critique the normal by making, doing and learning.
Unlike Design Thinking, it focuses purely on ideation and does not include a methodology or 6-phase cycle but is rather the philosophy that non-traditional approaches can lead to creative and unusual outcomes. It advocates for a shift in the paradigm of success, urging designers to explore uncharted territories, liberated from the constraints of efficiency and traditional measures of success.
The term was used by Alan Wexler in his book “Absurd Thinking: Between Art and Design”, where he famously said:
“The tool is what we use to think with. Therefore, if you want to change your thinking, change the tool.”
We’ve all heard that scarcity breeds creativity. Just think of MacGyver, a television character so well known for improvising wild, yet functional, contraptions from random objects that his name became a verb.
For Allan Wexler, he tested his own theory by designing and constructing a chair every day for 15 days. As his iterations continued on, he challenged what he thought a chair to be and played with different fabrication techniques, resulting in very unique objects:
Examples of Allan Wexler’s Chairs
Changing your metric of success and the tools you use, and challenging the beliefs of what you need to succeed and the problem you’re trying to solve will inevitably change how you approach your designs.
Designing for the future
Another issue is oftentimes today, we fall into trends (corporate memphis anyone?) and design based on previous experiences instead of aiming to design for future ones.
Enter Design Fiction, an ideating practice in which designers look into the future to explore and reflect upon the potential worlds they are creating. The practice of design fiction is similar to speculative design and critical design in that it uses props and design artifacts to pose questions about the future we want to design.
Unlike other types of design, Design Fiction is not seeking to solve a specific problem or create a specific and probable future, but rather explore and brainstorm possible futures through the lens of implications of our future culture. It looks at the largest possible subset of the future.
From a really great collection of visuals from Mapping Speculative Design
The exercise of partaking in design fiction allows us to step outside of today’s business and scientific constraints. These fictitious inventions, though not possible at the time, can help us envision our possible futures and help shape the direction we want to go in.
If you’re thinking “this seems like a futile exercise”, consider the following:

In 1964, Star Trek introduced the communicator, a voice communication device that allowed people to communicate with others with communicators and with ships. The first flip phone was in 1996.
In 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey depicted a video device that resembles a modern day tablet. The iPad came out in 2010, and Apple sued Samsung over the tablet patent, and Samsung claimed that the movie invented the idea first.
In 2015, IKEA had a design fiction exercise in which they created a catalog of IoT (Internet of Things)-driven future products. It included products like smart refrigerators that order food automatically and furniture holograms to help you create your ideal layout. Oh, and in 2017 they released their Places app to essentially do the latter with AR
Tell me these don’t look like the precursors to flip phones and tablets (All image sources linked in the bullet list above)
All of these designs were likely seen as absurd or near-impossible at the time they were created, but they’ve all served (and are still serving) as inspiration and even blueprints for the future we’re all heading toward.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of reinventing the wheel regularly, whether it’s styling a button for the 500th time or being told “we want this onboarding flow to be like Y’s, but for X”.
The most exciting design problems I see today include how we’ll use new materials in architecture and industrial design, determine new design heuristics for XR, and craft the future of GUIs in a world driven by AI.
I see us as being on another inflection point, one filled with innovative new inventions ranging from new materials to new tools that will require us as designers to create new design ideologies and methodologies.
Design Thinking isn’t dead.
The ideology still holds and the methodology provides a structure and value in how it encourages critical thinking and user-centric design, but it has since been hijacked by businessmen with much of the ideation phase morphed to meet specific business needs.
Now is the time to think absurdly and reintroduce it to our processes.
Doing so is an invitation to break the shackles of convention and to infuse creativity, authenticity, and unpredictability back into the core of design. By championing the absurd, we can rediscover the essence of design, ushering in an era of genuine innovation and distinctive experiences.
Please. I don’t want every future GUI to simply be a chat box.
Karina Chow

Embracing the absurd in your design practices was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Embracing the absurd in your design practices

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What a 19th century German concept can teach us about belonging in a rapidly changing world.
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karina chow

engineering & design consultant

Hello World, I'm Karina! ��

Interdisciplinary thinker

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