#(YURI ABSTINENCE OVER)

[rosycheekies]

Sugar Meets Girl! by Shirano Akihiro

[tacticalvalor]

«────── « HEADCANON » ──────»

This was a little project I did for one of my courses! We had to develop a case scenario for an individual with chronic substance misuse, and my dumb brain made it about Roman. 

So consider this a hypothetical look into a recovery arc.

DISCLAIMERS: I, in no way, shape, or form, a practicing professional. The basis of the project is purely hypothetical, so in a practical scenario, the choices for intervention may differ from what I’ve researched. Information and recommendations within this analysis may be outdated or not as supported as alternative recommendations. 

TW / CW: Alcoholism, Drugs, Detailed Medical Descriptions

With this information in mind, let’s jump into it.

This wasn’t part of the assignment, though I used details from this within presenting the case file. So, as an RP exclusive bonus, y’all get a proper (though shortened) intake assessment form. Consider this the Expanded and Enhanced™ Edition.

CLIENT INFORMATION

First Name: Yury

Last Name: Koshelev

Date of Birth: 09/20/1985

Insurance Type: N/A

Client’s Preferred Name: Roman Zemlin

Admission Date: XX/XX/XXXX

EMERGENCY CONTACT INFORMATION

Emergency Contact: Alexey Khorkin

Relationship: Grandfather

Release for Emergency Contact obtained for this time period: Yes

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Sex Assigned at Birth: Male

Gender Identity: Male

Pronoun Preferred: He/Him

REFERRAL REASON

[REDACTED]. Roman shows willingness for continued participation in treatment programs.

ALCOHOL AND DRUG HISTORY

Alcohol: Yes

Age at First Use: 14

Denies: No

Current Abuse: Yes

Current Dependence: Yes

PREVIOUS DRUG AND/OR ALCOHOL TREATMENT HISTORY

Type of Previous Recovery Treatment (Inpatient, Outpatient, Residential, Detoxification): Inpatient

Treatment Completed: Yes

RELEVANT MEDICAL HISTORY

Baseline Height: 5 feet and 8 inches

Baseline Weight: 156 pounds

Hypertension: At risk; Prehypertension

Memory: Yes; Impairment

HOSPITALIZATIONS

Number: 2

Reason(s): Alcohol Poisoning

MENTAL HEALTH HISTORY

Psychiatric Hospitalizations: No.

Outpatient Treatment: No.

Risk Factors: Aggressive / Violent Behaviors, Self-Harm

PSYCHOSOCIAL HISTORY

Arguments: Yes

Domestic Violence: No

Family Abuses Alcohol/Drugs: Yes; Biological parents (absent) abused alcohol and methamphetamine

Family Worried About Client’s Use of Drugs/Alcohol: Yes; Grandfather worried about family history and hospitalizations

Separated or Divorced: No

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Client Currently Employed? (Yes / No)

If so, list employer and job: Alexey Khorkin (Grandfather), Contract Assassin

Problems Caused by Substance Abuse: Yes

Working while Hung-Over: Yes

Trouble Concentrating: Yes

Consumed Substances while at Work: Yes

Comments: Due to the illicit nature of the work done by Roman and his grandfather, Alexey, many notable personal records have been redacted or destroyed. Information is gathered through client and relevant contacts.

CRIMINAL HISTORY / LEGAL STATUS

[REDACTED; NON-CANON TO CHARACTERIZATION]

This next portion is just describing the above information with a bit more context and nuance... aka these were the speaker notes I had to put for my slides. Made some relevant adjustments here.

PSYCHOSOCIAL HISTORY

Roman’s grandfather was unaware of Roman’s substance dependence until Roman had to be hospitalized for alcohol poisoning a second time. During this hospitalization, the grandfather (Alexey) disclosed to care professionals that his biological parents both struggled with substance dependence involving alcohol and methamphetamine. Once more, Roman experiences temporary abstinence after the inpatient stay but resumed drinking within the second month of abstinence.

RELEVANT MEDICAL HISTORY

In addition to the hospitalizations, Roman notes that when he is not binge drinking, he experiences low mood and irritability that results in arguments with his grandfather. He does not have insurance coverage due to being “unemployed”, and his grandfather has been helping to pay the medical bills.

CRIMINAL HISTORY / LEGAL STATUS

[REDACTED; NON-CANON TO CHARACTERIZATION]

Deciding what models of intervention and rehabilitation is a challenging task on its own, though especially so when dealing with complex cases. 

Luckily, what makes Roman an “easier” client is that he already exhibits motivation to make change. While not outright wishing to quit drinking, he does acknowledge his problems and wants to do something about them. I feel his problem area would be maintaining this motivation and keeping a stable support system.

Based on the research I conducted, I would approach Roman’s case following the General Systems Theory of Recovery and the Biopsychosocial Model of Relapse Prevention. Brief definitions of each as follows:

General Systems Theory (GST) of Recovery: A theory of interacting processes and the way they influence each other over time to permit the continuity of some larger whole [SRC]. In social work, this typically looks at how the family interacts with and builds the recovery process.

Biopsychosocial Model of Relapse Prevention: Biological/genetic, psychological, and sociocultural factors contribute to substance use and all must be taken into consideration in prevention and treatment efforts [SRC].

Why these approaches?

In discussing GST, the family plays an important role in the success of recovery. Most individuals follow a better recovery path when they have stable support systems. Similarly, for most individuals, the most influential social support system they have is family (however that is defined, be it biological or developed/found). And, just as family influences recovery, the recovery process can change the dynamics within the family. For example, continual hospitalizations create the potential for financial strain. This, and the exhibition of substance abuse within the household creates emotional/mental strain, as it’s an experience that has been lived (re: Roman’s biological parents and the falling out they had with Alexey prior to Roman’s conception).

In discussing the biopsychosocial model, there are several factors that are influencing Roman’s current risk for relapse. On a biological level, alcohol dependence has led to alterations in neural physiology (re: notable depressive and aggressive mood states; memory inhibition) and motor functioning (e.g., hand tremors, nausea, migraines, etc.). On a sociological level, we circle back to conflict within the family structure, which creates stress. This influences the psychological aspect, as a lack of healthy coping mechanisms is substituted by turning to the bottle when this stress reaches a critical point.

So, what treatment interventions align with these approaches and apply to Roman’s case? 

To answer this, we have to understand what Roman’s treatment goals are. What is he looking for out of pursuing treatment? Is it total abstinence? Harm reduction? Does he want to focus on the individual aspect, or does he want to take a holistic approach? Luckily, we know the answers.

TREATMENT GOALS

Reduce Alcohol Consumption: Roman wants to get a handle on his substance use. His dependence presents a challenge, thus taking a total abstinence approach would cause more harm than good.

Improve Family Relationship: Roman wants to forge a close relationship with his grandfather since he is the only biological family member he has contact with.

Again, then, what treatment interventions align with these approaches and apply to Roman’s case?

Harm Reductive Intervention: Rather than focusing on total abstinence, interventions should focus on moderation. The parameters for moderation are based on the client’s behavior and perception, with guidance provided by practitioners.

Benzodiazepines: Due to the severity of Roman’s alcohol dependence, prescribing this family of tranquilizers will help combat the body’s physiological responses to stress induced by withdrawal states.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): As an individual, Roman may benefit from this intervention as its focus is to challenge harmful mindsets and build healthy coping skills. Of course, I have to note that this intervention does not work for everyone, as its theoretical framework and general practice fall less into challenging and navigating cognitions and more into placing blame on the client. I despise the way many practitioners use this modality to uphold their own internal biases and create a punitive environment within the office.

Family Therapy: In addition to individual counseling, Roman may benefit from attending therapy alongside Alexey to help both establish a neutral, safe space to discuss notable concerns and develop key communicative skills to (hopefully) reduce the likelihood of conflict.

And that’s that on that! 

Will I implement any of this into his characterization? It depends on the verse. Within baseline canon, no. 

However, within verses where he’s developed into serious relationships with others (whatever the nature of those relationships be), it’s entirely possible he would seek treatment like this.

[ortustella]

I still seriously do not comprehend the deep and utter hatred some fans have for JJ. 

He was set up as the antagonist for season 1. 

Not everyone is going to like him because he threatened the fandoms precious Yuuri’s chances of getting a gold just as much as Yuri did. I get that, you can’t please everyone with every character, that’s just hard truth. And yet no one’s calling Yuri every horrible name in the book and wishing shitty backstories and facts, or what have you, on him. JJ was the skater to beat at the final competition, and all the other skaters in the Grand Prix Final KNEW THIS. Yes, he is now confirmed to be horrible at picking up on social cues and realizing that others are annoyed by some of his antics. BUT HE’S A FUCKING HUMAN. He is not a mind reader. Yes he has a bad habit of inadvertently turning conversations around to him. But you know what, you can’t correct yourself or learn unless you’re made aware of what you’re doing. like I said, he’s not a mind reader. After watching JJ have his anxiety attack in episode 11, I truly thought that would’ve softened a lot of haters to him because it took his character to a place that is so relatable for so many fans, and yet you still can’t go in JJ’s tag without seeing consistent hate even after all this official fanbook information that is being released and translated. 

It’s one thing to make a passing joke in response to other skaters dislike of him, because at the current canon standpoint that is the characters various opinions of him. As fans though, there is no excuse to be wasting time expressing such hatred for a fictional character and wishing things on someone who isn’t real??? We could beat the dead horse here of ‘stop spreading hate in the tags’, but I’m not going down that rabbit hole again. I’m just straight up both surprised and annoyed that people are still completely glossing over new information that is helping shape his character, make him more real, and make him more relatable. 

Yeah he’s apparently super religious to the point where he’s choosing to remain completely abstinent even in light of being engaged to be married. I’m not going down the rabbit hole of religion either because people often equate that anymore with automatically being bigoted or racist or what have you. 

I just truly hope that someday more fans will get away from their beliefs and moral superiority towards JJ simply because he was the show’s antagonist. Every show has to have one, or the plot would not move forward. But even when the outright creators of the show are using words and phrases such as ‘kind-hearted’ and ‘he didn’t want Otabek eating alone so he went out of his way to invite him out’ when directly describing JJ, it’s apparently sill not good enough to make people stop for three seconds and reconsider that maybe. JUST MAYBE. JJ isn’t an inherently bad person. We all have flaws, and if you think you don’t then I think you need to go do some soul searching because we all do whether you want to believe it or not. Like I said, not everyone is going to be in love with his character. 

But this baseless hatred for JJ for the reasons that people constantly berate him for, they need to stop.

-drops mic and leaves-

[animeprinces-imagines]

* reader is gendered in some way (physically, nickname, pronouns, etc.)

uta no prince sama ➷

masato returning home from tour; fluffy smut * first date with ai; fluff amusement park date with ai; comfort attempting to cuddle with ai; fluff ai cuddling you in his sleep; fluff

relationship headcanons w/ otoya; fluff kissing headcanons w/ masato; fluff when a stranger hits on you (ai, otoya, tokiya); fluff, v light angst surprise anniversary date (ai, otoya); fluff nsfw headcanons w/ ranmaru; smut

your zodiac boyfriend (starish) when you’re sick (starish); comfort when a thunderstorm scares you (starish); comfort when you’re insecure over a non-curvy figure (starish); suggestive, fluffy, comfort cuddling w/ them (starish); mega fluff you come to their concert after telling them you wouldn’t make it (starish + quartet night); fluff you suddenly kiss them (starish + quartet night); fluff where they take you on a date (starish + quartet night); fluff your cooking is worse than natsuki’s (starish + quartet night); fluff when a thunderstorm scares you (quartet night); comfort a member of starish flirts with you (quartet night); fluff, jealousy stuff hehe you practice abstinence (starish + quartet night + heavens; comfort/reassurance you come to their concert after telling them you wouldn’t make it (heavens); fluff

when a member of the band is sick (starish) what sports teams they would be in (starish + quartet night + heavens) their favorite christmas songs (starish + quartet night + heavens)

ouran high school host club ➷

you finally confess to kyoya; fluff your first time with takashi; smut *

how they propose (host club bois); mega fluff you are a writer + artist (host club bois); fluff haruhi’s younger sibling (you) is smitten with them (host club bois); fluff telling them you have bpd (host club bois); comfort, fluff hand holding gifset (host club + haruhi); fluff they fall in love with someone they can’t have (tamaki, kyoya, hikaru, kaoru); angst

yuri!!! on ice ➷

first kiss with viktor; fluff

when you’re sick (jj, otabek, leo, seung-gil lee); comfort, fluff celebrating your birthday with them (all the skaters); mega fluff

obey me! shall we date? ➷

coming soon!!

mystic messenger ➷

coming soon!!

the arcana ➷

coming soon!!

[regular-lord-reckoner]

We Need to Talk About Kevin, I Mean Otayuri

Alright, so let’s talk about Otayuri, age of consent, pedophilia, and abusive relationships for a minute. (This is gonna get long, but please bear with me)

So, like most issues that exist, you’ve got people on at least two pretty distinct sides (and a bunch that fall somewhere in the middle).

There are those who feel like the shipping of these two is absolutely, completely wrong for a variety of reasons and those who feel like the shipping of these two is absolutely, completely a-okay for a variety of reasons.

So, let’s talk about some of those and I’ll share with you my perspective on the situation, shall we?

Obviously one of the biggest issues that comes up is the age of consent. When talking about these characters in particular it becomes a little tricky because they both come from different countries and the show itself is Japanese.

According to a little research, the age of consent for both Russia and Kazakhstan is 16. For Japan it’s 13 (which…yikes on bikes).

Now, this becomes important because there’s a lot of speculation about how to view the ages of both characters.

In terms of where the show itself has left off, where season one ended, Yuri was still 15. His birthday is at the beginning of March and so it’s assumed that unless the show decides to go back in time, if/when we get a season 2 he’ll be 16 (although if the show picks up literally where it left off he’s probably still 15 and I’d guess maybe two months out from 16? It’s hard to tell. Yuuri’s hair has gotten longer in the last shot, so we know at least some time has passed since December, but it’s unclear how much. Chances are, though, being that the show itself took place in essentially real time, by the time a second season is out we’ll have passed that point and hell, Yuri may even be 17 by the time we get another season, who knows.) 

Otabek’s age is a little more unclear. Several times in the show his age is listed as 18 until towards the end of the season where Celestino says he’s 19. Otabek’s birthday is at the end of October and although a great deal of time passes from the beginning of the season to the end (Yuuri mentions something along the lines of “I can’t believe it’s already been 8 months…”) during Viktor’s narration which takes place in December he says Otabek is 18, so we didn’t pick up another birthday for him, therefore I’m more inclined to think he’s actually 18 and that Celestino was just mistaken or perhaps it was an accident on behalf of one of the writers.

But so essentially we’re dealing with a 15/16 year old and an 18/possibly 19 year old.

Now, first off something I’ve noticed from the opposed side is that they tend to cite American laws of consent, but there is an issue there and that is that American laws of consent are not the same across the board, but rather determined by state.

In the US, consent is set anywhere from 16 to 18 years of age with the most common being 16 years of age. Obviously then this makes it hard trying to apply American law to this situation because neither character lives in America and therefore we can’t say, “Oh, well Otabek is from New York, so the age of consent for him would be 17!”

That being the case, I think it’s more appropriate to use their own countries as what we hold them to in legal terms, because different countries have different ideas and laws about other behaviors as well that are considered “for adults only” such as drinking, driving, voting, buying cigarettes, renting a car, etc., etc.

So, as it would stand right now, if we’re to take the view of Yuri still being 15 because that’s where the show left him, then yes, a relationship between he and Otabek would not be okay in either country as he is under the age of consent.

By the time the show comes back, though (and lord I hope it does) Yuri will likely be 16 and therefore legally able to consent.

Now listen…I don’t like the idea of a 16 year old having sex as much as the next guy. I think that’s too young, I think that age is too immature to really handle something like that, but I teach sex ed to middle and high schoolers and I know better. They’re doing it.

Fortunately, last I checked (and this is American statistics but still) only like 47% of high schoolers are sexually active, which is less than half. And if I’m not mistaken, I think it’s actually lower than that now, so that’s somewhat good news!

Also, teen pregnancy rates have been on the decline over the past few decades, although they’re still not great they are going down. Unfortunately, however, teen STD rates are going up.

Of the 20 million new STD cases reported each year, about half are from young people ages 15-24. 

So, whether we like it or not, these little fuckers are out here boning down on each other and they’re not being particularly careful about it either, which is discouraging, but part of why I do what I do.

Unfortunately, however, in the state in which I work there are very strict laws about sex education, specifically that we’re to promote abstinence emphatically and exclusively and that we cannot promote the use of contraceptives and birth control and may only give medically accurate information about such if a student asks a question about them in good faith (which means they don’t ask just to get a rise out of me or the class).

These laws are born, I think, out of this mindset that a lot of adults have that sex isn’t for teens and therefore they should only be given the bare minimum amount of information, lest you inadvertently encourage them to become sexually active. (This mindset, btw, is also what I believe drives adults to deny kids and teens the validity of their gender identity and sexual orientations, although the situations are not quite the same the underlying idea of a teenager being too young/too immature to be able to handle/know about certain things is of the same thread.) 

And again, like…in some part I agree. I teach these kids, I see how a lot of them still can’t handle having a mature conversation about puberty and am horrified every time one of says they think the “pull out method” is an effective way to prevent pregnancy (joke’s on you, kid, it’s actually the way most teens end up getting pregnant!)

If I had it my way, I’d give these kids some coloring books and juice boxes and sit their asses in front of cartoons all day long because the older you get, the more people younger than you look like infants. Hell, even by my senior year of high school I was looking at freshman thinking, “You’re just babies, what are you doing here??? Who let you out of daycare?!?!?”

I also had a 15 year old insist to me that her personality is going to stay the same for the rest of her life and that she’s pretty much already matured as much as she’s ever going to and I just…I hated to be “that adult” but I had to gently point out to her that while for the most part, yes, her personality may stay more or less the same that her brain hasn’t even finished growing.

You don’t reach full brain development until around your mid-twenties and one of the last things to fully develop is your prefrontal cortex area which is responsible for things like personality, decision-making, and impulse control. Y’know, things we tend to think of younger people struggling with.

That being said, I’m not one of these people that thinks teenagers are just sacks of jumbled hormones who can’t be trusted with any level of responsibility and who have no levels of maturity whatsoever. That’s certainly not true.

A lot of kids at that age slowly begin to take on responsibilities like learning how to drive, how to manage their own money, and maybe even have a part-time job, as well as already looking into higher education or which field of work they’d like to enter once they graduate.

Teenagers do possess a certain capacity for these things and so I’m not writing them off entirely, I’m just saying I can sympathize with those who look at them and think, “God, you’re so young, though, you shouldn’t be trusted with something so important…” because it’s hard not to look back at your own youth and think, “Wow, I really thought I had it all figured out then, but I didn’t know shit!”

(Then again, I still do assert that I was pretty mature for my age. While of course I wasn’t completely there, I was more mature than what you’d expect from a typical teenager, although perhaps I’m a little biased in saying so, who knows.)

So, okay, we’ve established that we understand why some people can’t fathom the thought of teens who are sexually active, I gotcha, I’m right there with ya. But again, I think we need to be realistic and come to terms with the fact that, like it or not, they are.

If at age 16 Yuri decides to become sexually active, I may not like it, but he will legally be able to consent and his behavior wouldn’t be some drastic deviation from the norm. If he were to live in America, he’d still be in that less than half percentage of those who are, but it’s still pretty close to half and therefore not really that unheard of.

From a legal standpoint, then, at age 16 there’s nothing technically wrong. He’s well within his rights at that point. At 15, no, but 16, yes.

Now, I see a lot of people from the in favor side who are very transparent about the fact that they wouldn’t ship Yuri and Otabek together until Yuri’s 16 anyway, some saying not even until he’s 18 or until they’re both in their twenties because they want these characters to have time to get to know one another as friends first and then perhaps something romantic will develop as time goes on. This is also in conjecture with the idea that just because two people are dating doesn’t automatically mean they’re having sex, and in fact, I’ve seen a lot of headcanons for both Yuri and Otabek that view them as being asexual, so there’s that as well.

One of the ways of thinking about their situation, therefore, is to put it in a realistic context and realize that age-wise, this is the equivalent of a sophomore and a senior in high school dating.

Another way of looking at it is that Otabek is eighteen. Teen. He’s still a teenager. He will remain a teenager until he’s twenty. Even though, at least in the US, he’d be allowed to vote and buy cigarettes, he’s still technically a teen, so we’re talking about two teenagers dating. And again, a 16 and 18 year old dating isn’t really that uncommon.

Now, here’s where I take issue with something. I see a lot of people on the opposed side calling Otabek a “grown ass man”. I…don’t know how many 18 year olds you know, but I would hardly classify them as “grown ass” individuals.

Here again, an 18 year old’s brain hasn’t even finished growing yet and although an 18 year old is likely to be a little more mature than a 16 year old, we’re not talking about drastic leaps and bounds in maturity the same way we would between someone who’s 12 and someone who’s 16.  

I think people use this terminology to support the idea that “Otayuri is pedophilia” in which by painting Otabek as a “grown ass man” and Yuri as “a literal child” it sounds a lot worse than what it really is which, again, if we don’t put these two together until Yuri’s 16 is a ~two year age gap. Hardly that scandalous and also not what pedophilia is, but I do on the other hand understand why it makes some people uncomfortable and that’s okay! (It’s not okay that you’re uncomfortable, but your feelings are valid, is what I’m saying)

I know a lot of people like to get real technical at this point in the argument and talk about pedophilia per definition, so let’s talk about that.

Merriam-Webster dictionary describes pedophilia as: sexual perversion in which children are the preferred sexual object; specifically: a psychological disorder in which an adult has sexual fantasies about or engages in sexual acts with a prepubescent child.

Therefore, a lot of people argue that using the term pedophilia isn’t exactly accurate because Yuri’s not really prepubescent. Now, from where I sit, I know the onset of puberty can begin anywhere from 9 to 16 years old, it depends on the person and typically “boys” are later than “girls”.

Yuri describes during the show how he knows he has a short window before his body begins to change, which prompts some to think that perhaps he hasn’t begun puberty yet. This one’s difficult, because it’s not likely we’re going to get a solid answer on, “Hey, when will/did Yuri start puberty?”

He’s on the shorter side right now (5’4) and it’s hard to tell with an animated character how defined his features really are, although he does appear to have some muscle tonnage in spite of his skinny physique so that tells me he’s at least experiencing some puberty, also the fact that his voice is on the deeper side and he doesn’t appear to have any vocal cracking going on. (Although how far you can really throw that one considering the flashback of him at like…what, 10 or 12 has him with the same voice so…Idk)

Being that it’s somewhat murky then whether or not he’s started puberty, I can see where semantically you could use the definition of pedophilia to either condemn of excuse your stance.

In terms of age-wise, though, typically anyone under the age of 13 would be considered a child and an attraction to a teenager would be more along the lines of either hebephilia or ephebophilia.

However, I don’t really think we need to get into semantics to understand what a person is trying to say when they say, “I don’t support this ship because I think it’s pedophilia”. What they mean is that they’re uncomfortable with someone who’s a legal adult being with someone who isn’t quite there yet. And again, that’s understandable if that makes you uncomfortable and I’m not going to tell you to shut up or feel a different way.

I do, however, take issue with the fact that I feel like some of the discourse surrounding issues of pedophilia takes on a stance that essentially borders on the idea of: if two 17 year olds date they have to break up as soon as one of them turns 18 because that’s just wrong!!!!! That’s…kind of extreme, in my opinion and misses the point.

But we’ll talk more about pedophilia in just a second, I want to move on to my next point.

So, from the opposed side we have the argument of, “Even if Yuri is of legal age of consent by the time he starts dating Otabek, it would be an abusive relationship because of the power imbalance brought on by their age gap and therefore I cannot support it.”

So this one is…pretty messy, honestly.

I realize that a lot of this comes from people who, themselves, have been in abusive relationships in which an age gap similar to or greater than this one was present and therefore it’s hard for them to sign off on this relationship because it echoes too much of their own experience.

And so first off out the gate I want to say I’m sorry that happened to you. I’m sorry if you’re one of those people, you didn’t deserve the abuse your endured and I hate it for you that you had this god awful experience.

I would, however, encourage you to both realize that your experiences are not universal and to also be critical of how the age gap played a factor.

So, let’s talk about it.

First and foremost, like I said, this is not a universal experience. Although there are a lot of people who are in age gap relationships who end up being abused, there are just as many people who have been in age gap relationships that were healthy.

This is where I urge you to be critical of the age gap itself and realize that the age gap on its own doesn’t make for an abusive relationship.

This is where the defense side chimes in with the notion that if it were true that all age gaps are inherently abusive then wouldn’t Viktor and Yuuri’s relationship be abusive as they have a ~4 year age gap?

The obvious answer is no, it’s not unhealthy for them.

So part of the problem is specifically with the fact that Otabek is a legal adult whereas Yuri is not. Now there again, I see where you’re coming from and I have absolutely no problem if you can’t get behind it on those grounds alone.

However, again, I don’t think there’s really that drastic of a leap between 16 and 18 that would constitute this massive power imbalance that people seem to think would exist between the two.

The issue with older abusers is this: they’re still abusers no matter what age they date. If they dated someone their own age, guess what? They’d still be abusers. Their motivation in seeking someone younger than themselves may very well be because they think it would be easier to manipulate or influence them and sometimes that is the case, but here again, it’s not a feature that’s exclusive to all age gaps and not even ones wherein one person is a legal adult and the other is say 16 or 17.

We’ve all seen the warnings, especially to younger girls, about watching out for older guys who try to pick them up and I think that’s absolutely good advice and you should be wary as hell about that.

However, I’m not going to look at a 16 year old girl and an 18 year old guy and be like, “Mmm, abusive. He’s got power over her, he’s taking advantage.” That may be the case, but it may also not and I wouldn’t know just from looking at their age or the gap between them.

Now 15 and 18, yeah that gets pretty sketchy, I’m not comfortable with that. But 16 and 18? Call me naïve, but that seems somewhat negligible and really needs to be assessed on a case-by-case basis because while that situation may prove to be a perfect storm for an abusive relationship, it doesn’t necessitate one on that basis alone.

As a side note, while we’re on the subject of power imbalances I am curious as to how those opposed feel about the power imbalance between Yuuri and Viktor with Viktor acting as Yuuri’s coach. I’m not saying there necessarily is one or that it’s damaging, especially not in the same way teacher/student, doctor/patient, or employer/employee is, but one could argue that their ship should immediately go in the trash because Viktor does have, albeit minimal, power over Yuuri. As their relationship plays out, I think they’ve actually struck a healthy balance between the two of them, but since we’re looking at his from a purely black and white standpoint in which X is always wrong, no matter the circumstances, then I think we need to apply that same logic to the ships we do love as well for the sake of fairness.

But back to the point, in terms of the age gap between them playing a factor into why these two shouldn’t be together, on the one hand I perfectly understand why it makes some people uncomfortable and why they can’t support it and you have my full support in avoiding what makes you uncomfortable. However, on the other hand, I don’t think it’s fair for someone to use their personal experience to try to generalize and make rules for what should and shouldn’t be allowed.

My parents have a 17 year age gap between them. They met when my mom was in her twenties, so nothing is illegal about their relationship, but my dad does have some years on her. However, in terms of their relationship they see and treat each other as equals (although if I’m honest I kinda think Mom more so “wears the pants”, so to speak but shhh).

I’m also witnessing a relative of mine who’s in her early twenties who’s dating a man who is…older than her own mother, so that’s…a thing. And although I don’t know all the ins and outs of their relationship, I am seeing a lot of stuff from her side in which she’s being abusive towards him. She constantly guilts him over certain behaviors, posting dozens of statuses each day that allude to her hurt feelings any time he doesn’t immediately text her back or drop everything to spend time with her. She also employs a lot of the rhetoric of “no one will ever love you as much as I do, so you can go out there and try to find something better, but you never will!” which is like…textbook abuser language.

But she’s younger! She shouldn’t be able to do that, right? Well, she is. She most certainly is and so here again I say, an age gap just on its face doesn’t automatically constitute for an abusive relationship in which the older person takes advantage of and abuses the younger person. While that does sometimes happen and while that may be the motivation of the abuser to find someone younger in order to more easily take advantage, it’s not fair to generalize that behavior to any and all age gap relationships, including those between legal adults and minors (provided that minor is at least at the age of consent because again, I too think it’s pretty ehhhhhhh when you get younger than that, also not to mention, y’know, ILLEGAL, so there’s that).

So, alright we’ve done a loooooot of talking about the hot button issues that come up in this heated debate and hopefully I was able to add a little more clarity to the situation? Perhaps not, but if nothing else this is my take on it and to be clear I’ll reiterate: As Yuri stands now, where canon left him, he is 15 years old and not legally able to consent to a relationship with Otabek who is 18 (possibly 19). Once the show picks back up, however, and Yuri is 16 then he will legally be able to consent to a relationship with Otabek. Whether or not that relationship will be sexual in nature is likely not going to be addressed in canon and left up to fan interpretation in which I know already a lot of people have already stated that even still they wouldn’t have these two start bumping uglies right out of the gate and that for some, they may never due to personal interpretations of their respective sexualities.

But so…here comes the next part and this is where we’re going to pick back up on pedophilia.

Regardless of whether or not these two end up actually getting together or not, regardless of whether or not you wait for Yuri to be 16…he’s still 16.

Now, if you yourself, as a fan, are also 16 then…I guess I can’t really stop you from thirsting over this character, but here is something I can toss your way: don’t create nsfw artwork or fan fiction involving this underage character.

Especially, ESPECIALLY, if you are an actual “grown ass adult”.

Just…stop it. Get some help. That shouldn’t have to be said.

The amount of people thirsting over Yuri’s “Welcome to the Madness” performance who are adults is, frankly, super disturbing. I put some of that blame on the studio itself for having his performance be as provocative as it was, but the audience itself should be able to police themselves into behaving and not going, “Oh wow, so sexy, so hot, wow wow wow!!!”

Being that this skate took place after the GPF, guess what? He’s 15. HE’S 15. YOU’RE SALIVATING OVER A 15 YEAR OLD, CONGRATS! 

I don’t care how much “older” he looks with makeup and his outfit. I don’t care if he had taken all his damn clothes off right then and there, you need to stop with that shit, stop sexualizing this underage character!!!

I get it, he’s not “real”, he’s an animated character, but works featuring him, as a minor, engaging in sexual acts or the sexualization of him (fictional or not) still contributes to a harmful culture that preys on children and adolescents.

Which, to my understanding, is a pretty big problem in Japan and I mean…again, their age of consent is 13. That…really doesn’t sit right with me. I know different cultures have different attitudes about things, but just knowing what I do of psychology, I don’t think a 13 year old can really understand the repercussions or have the maturity level to engage in sexual behaviors, especially not with someone older.

It’s also been found that adults who prey on children will actually use things like cartoons and animations which depict the exploitation of children in sexual situations to convince children that what they’re doing is okay and perfectly acceptable. That’s…really fucked up.

I understand that a lot of people in fandom saying these things or posting these works don’t think they’re doing anything wrong or don’t realize how harmful their actions are, but I’m here to tell ya…newsflash, asshole, depicting minors in sexual situations has been wrong this entire goddamn time!!! Please stop doing that. Please, for the love of god. S T O P.

As far as “aging up” the characters I mean…that’s going to be a divisive issue in which again, I get both sides.

Being that he’s not a real character you can sort of shape him in different ways and part of that involves depicting him as an actual adult. As long as that’s actually conveyed in your work and is perfectly clear then I guess technically there’s not anything legally off about that, although it might not sit right with everyone who feels like that’s still sketchy behavior.

Personally, I’m more comfortable with the aging up thing in fan fiction because fan fiction in general tends to take a lot of liberties away from canon to begin with and so it’s not that hard to envision a Yuri who in a story would be in his twenties.

Then again, I may also be biased because these are my personal thoughts on the ship: As of right now, I don’t see them as anything but friends, perhaps even best friends. I’m happy for both of them that they have someone they feel like they can relate to and being that at least Yuri’s been something of a loner, I’m glad he has someone close to his age that he gets along with so well.

I feel like (and again, this is just me) that as they get older it’s perfectly possible that their relationship may develop into something more and I wouldn’t be opposed to that. I think that once they both have a chance to grow and mature, and again, get better acquainted with one another first as friends, that I could see them having a cute, happy, healthy relationship of which I’d be in support of.

As of right now, though, I don’t ship them romantically. It’s just sort of a parent looking at their kid and their good friend and thinking, “Hmmm, those two might get married some day years and years down the road…” and sort of smiling knowingly to yourself.

Now of course, it’s 100% possible that they don’t. That they remain friends (or perhaps even grow apart, who knows!) but never anything more than that or maybe even that when they’re a little older they try dating, but it doesn’t work out, they make better friends, and so they split. Mother doesn’t always know best and although I personally think of them as a future otp, there’s really no saying for sure until we get something in canon.

But so…these are all my thoughts. Feel free to disagree with me, I understand this is incredibly sensitive subject matter and people have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it, some of which are deeply personal and therefore make this an even more charged discussion.

I apologize if anything I’ve said has contributed to that harm, even if it was indirectly. I’ve tried, to the best of my ability, to look at this from both sides and to take each argument into careful consideration, although I’m just one person and like all people, I can be biased and misinformed, so my word is definitely not law and like I said multiple times, if you simply just can’t get behind the ship because it makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable, for whatever reason, I encourage you to do what’s best for you and what’s best for your health.

For those in favor of, please don’t insist that anyone opposed “just get over it” or “shut up and let people ship what they want, gosh!!!” It’s really not quite as simple as that and you may be talking to someone who has a personal experience similar to the one this relationship would present that was traumatic for them and it therefore is hard for them to see you being dismissive of concerns that they try to bring to your attention.

That being said, I do realize as well that there are a lot of people who haven’t really sat down and given the situation any thought who are basically just looking for an excuse to yell at someone and so all they want to do is yell, “It’s pedophilia, it’s wrong, you should kill yourself!!!!” even at people who have said, “I’m actually a survivor of CSA and I don’t think this ship is that”.

I think there’s sort of a knee-jerk reaction re: pedophilia discourse to really go into high gear and start chucking things in the trash if it even vaguely looks like that’s what’s going on, but we’re not really doing that discourse any service if we have this sort of reaction instead of stepping back and looking at it from a truly critical and realistic point of view. 

The protection of children and minors is of the utmost importance and should come first before all things, but it needs to be from a rational standpoint otherwise we’re not really benefiting anyone but ourselves as we try to look the most morally upstanding of them all by using sweeping generalizations and condemning situations without really taking them into proper context and consideration. 

In addition to that line of thought, for those who defend the ship, bear in mind that your enjoyment of something doesn’t get to supersede the safety of others. 

As I’ve outlined, 15 year old Yuri and 18 year old Otabek would not be okay.

16 year old Yuri and 18 year old Otabek, however, is legal and it doesn’t really do any good to throw American laws at the situation just because that’s where you’re from because again, these two aren’t from America and the age of consent varies by state, although the most common age is still 16 so really no matter how you slice it that’s what we’re left with.

And, of course, art and fan fiction depicting an underage Yuri in sexual situations is not okay, especially if you’re an adult.

So. This has been a lot of text, a lot of words, a lot of ideas, and a lot to take in, but it’s all important.

I don’t see this as an argument that’s going to go away any time soon, so I wanted to offer up my two cents which no one asked for, but I felt nevertheless compelled to share.

I think people on both sides need to take the time to listen, to try to understand, and to have some compassion. If you’re yelling at a 16 year old kid on the internet to go kill themselves because you think they’re doing something harmful, that’s not really any better than what you’re trying to defend and you need to take a step back. Because although there are plenty (re: too many) problematic adults in this fandom, a lot of fans are actually themselves minors. I promise and encourage you to make your point without having to jump to death threats or telling people to die. There is validity (to a certain degree) on both sides and I hope this ridiculously long post has provided at least a little bit of clarity on the situation.

I think it’s important that we don’t jump to conclusions or take certain ideas to their most extreme i.e. “all age gap relationships are inherently abusive!” and “a 16 year old is a helpless infant incapable of making decisions for themselves and has no business being sexually active!”

While you may be understandably uncomfortable with age gaps and sexually active teens, these are things that happen that aren’t always bad, it’s the context and the nature of the relationship that’s important and while like I said, I’m not wild about the idea of a 16 year old being sexually active (there are also a lot of grown ass adults I’m not wild about being sexually active either as they can be highly immature and irresponsible) I’m also realistic and can understand that there’s a fair chance they will be and that I don’t do that age group any favors by blanketly infantilizing them and trying to deny them that, especially if legally they’re within their rights. I do, however, as an adult have a responsibility both morally and legally to not contribute to the sexualization of said 16 year old.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and please be good to yourself and to each other.  

[recentanimenews]

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Manga of 2019

Welcome to the first post in our annual “Staff Picks” series, in which the Ani-Gamers team selects some of our favorite anime, manga, and video games of the past year. As is the custom, we begin with manga.

2019 was a year of transition for the manga industry. The breadth of manga available in North America is larger than ever thanks to an array of seemingly thriving publishers. Japan-backed veterans Viz Media and Kodansha Comics continue to pump out great books, Seven Seas is more active than ever, and Square Enix has now thrown their hat into the ring with a new US-based subsidiary. But the biggest news of the year is the rise of digital manga services. In late 2018 Viz launched their revamped digital Shonen Jump experience (simulpubs and the full back catalog for some of the most popular manga in the world for the absurdly low price of $1.99 a month), followed shortly thereafter by Shueisha’s Manga Plus, a competing free manga service offering major titles from Viz’s Japanese parent company (go figure). Meanwhile, third-party services like MangaMo are starting to explore the digital subscription space. 2020 may just be the year that manga has its Crunchyroll moment.

That’s all the business side, though! Now it’s time to talk about the comics themselves. This year we’ve got three staff members participating, showcasing stellar manga stories across the genre spectrum, from whimsical fantasy to gothic horror to understated romance. Enjoy, and feel free to chime in with your own 2019 picks in the comments.

David Estrella

#3: At the Mountains of Madness

Quick disclaimer: H.P. Lovecraft was a big-time racist and I’m very aware of the contemporary re-evaluation of his works in the context of the man’s politics. That said, Gou Tanabe’s adaptation of Lovecraft’s novella is still an incredible work that should be taken with the illustrator’s own merits in mind. It’s Tanabe’s own talents that really elevate an old story that has been mined for parts and made relatively obsolete by other creators. As an artist, Tanabe’s visuals paint a perfect picture of alien desolation and dread, and his approach to pacing has few parallels among his peers. It’s a manga that doesn’t read like a typical manga and as far as graphic novels go, Tanabe is comfortable pulling from as many Western influences as needed without losing sight of his own identity and ideas. It’s simply a good comic from an artist that’s probably better than Lovecraft deserves.

#2: Bakemonogatari

Having rewatched the TV series innumerable times before reading the novel, I was convinced there wasn’t much new ground to break with Bakemonogatari. Oh!Great proved me wrong. The manga artist’s career-defining works had their moment before I was aware of them so I came into this unprepared for what I would find. Not content to simply rely on Nisioisin’s prose to carry the familiar story of a boy, a girl, and the crab spirit that stole her physical weight, Oh!Great pushes the imagery to extremes that not many artists would dare attempt. It’s almost overwhelming to see the ambition in every page that features some wild shifts in angles and perspective and yet remains totally comprehensible. The kinetic energy of the manga does override some of the finer, subtler points of the source but I can respect it as its own creation separate from the original.

#1: Nicola Traveling Around the Demon’s World

Nicola Traveling Around The Demon’s World is the best manga that I’ve read in 2019, rising above even my Monogatari bias on the virtue of being a completely new and fresh title, drawn with an infectious sense of joy and wonder that you can’t find in much of anything these days. I tend to fly through manga as quickly as I can read it, to the dismay of any hard-working comic artists reading this, but Nicola is worth the time to slow down and properly take in all the details inked onto the pages. It’s not Asaya Miyanaga’s desire to show off their skills when the panels are brimming with character, but instead it’s their love for their creation. Nicola might have run in a magazine explicitly marketed at adult readers but it would be unfair to place it in a box that would discourage young manga fans from reading this.

Ink

#3: Kino’s Journey – The Beautiful World

As someone who remains 100% in love with the 2003 anime adaptation of some of Keiichi Sigsawa’s Kino’s Journey novels and someone who found the 2017 anime adaption reboot largely soulless and hugely disappointing, I am fully prepared to defend my claim that this manga not only carries the very essence of the 2003 adaption but successfully builds on it in a few ways. First off, the stories, which include new and established chapters, are by Keiichi Sigsawa, so everything’s right from the source (via translator) there. Secondly, illustration by way of Iruka Shiomiya offers everything one could ask for in a title with such disparate situations as Kino’s Journey. Gone is the bishi Kino of 2017, and the more androgynous design returns. Heavy detail is placed into Kino’s motorad, Hermes, as well as weaponry and other machinery, but more detail is also placed on gore … which is a lot more prevalent and, as one might expect, not illustrated in detail to evoke a feeling of pleasure. Each volume also begins with a lovingly drawn, two-page spread overlain with a translation from Sigsawa’s original novels. This manga is only #3 on my list, because it’s another, albeit fantastic, iteration of something I already love, and that puts it at an unfair advantage over the other two in my list.

#2: Girls’ Last Tour

When the anime adaptation of Tsukumizu’s Girls’ Last Tour manga aired, the series of successive vignettes seemed the spiritual successor to the 2003 adaptation of Kino’s Journey. The episodes, like the source material, focus on moe blobs Chito and Yuuri exploring a stratified, post apocalyptic landscape via kettenkrad in search of, well, anything. While the episodes sometimes feel like a platformer video game with regard to how characters get from point A to point B, the human elements of observation and imagination are ultimately what make the series so enthralling in portraying the means necessary for maintaining sanity in the face of desolation. The anime, however, does not adapt all of the manga; the last two volumes are (as of yet) not adapted, and they are worth reading to the very end. The manga sports a style that melds the industrial with the abstract/absurd to simultaneously isolate humanity and show the ways in which it thrives. The chapters are often pensive think pieces which exploit innocence as a lens to both denounce the destruction of an inherited world and praise that which is found therein. The art, despite being hyper-mechanically and -pasturally focused, is admirably minimalist; a few lines often define landscapes, and the resulting emptiness is of the utmost importance for atmosphere and tone. Panel progression and related mastery of visual metaphor are so very important to the interpretation that I question whether dialog is necessary at all. That said, the charming, often (but not constantly) comical relationship between the odd couple MCs does help move moments along in the more stagnant bits while providing enough chuckles to press on.

#1: Happiness

Despite being a huge fan of Shuzo “Your Mental Discomfort is My Middle Name” Oshimi, this manga is about vampires, and I am very much burnt out on vampires and werewolves and zombies and the like. To be fair, however, Happiness is just as much about vampires as most vampire movies are about vampires. That is to say they are about (a) hunger. More to the point, and more to Oshimi’s forte, this 10-volume deep-dive into a youth mentally dealing with his newly awakened, biological need to feed is a visual feast from which Oshimi wants readers to catch the warm coppery waft of life. I fell in love with this title with Volume 2. The initial concept in the visual depiction of hunger - a swirling and distortion of character POV that increases in magnitude with the length of abstinence - feeds right into Oshimi’s Francophilia; post-impressionist landscapes and portraits are definite influences, and other European styles are invoked as well for jaw-dropping art used mainly in chapter breaks. Oshimi’s visual style has improved by leaps and bounds since Flowers of Evil, and that’s saying something given how much I love the visuals in the latter volumes of that title.

Evan Minto

#3: Bloom Into You

It’s been a pretty quiet year for Bloom Into You, with only a single book (volume 6) released in the US. However, 2019 was the year I discovered this wonderful manga, so here it is on my list. Bloom Into You is a yuri manga with an unlikely premise: its main character, Yuu, has never had feelings for anyone, boy or girl. Even when Touko, the seemingly perfect student council president, confesses to her, Yuu feels nothing, but as she spends more time with her she finds a hint of something growing in her heart. Bloom Into You is all about the slow burn, the uncertainty and furtive glances of young love. But what especially sticks out to me is the way it captures — intentionally or not — the experience of asexuality. Where most manga romances follow characters seeking love from others or obliviously stumbling into it while the audience cheers them on, Bloom Into You is about the process of introspection and overthinking, as Yuu tries to figure out if she is even capable of love. Nio Nakatani’s character designs and realistically stylish costumes are a delight, and come to life beautifully in her flowing, evocative art style. I can’t wait to see how this series wraps up next year.

#2: Witch Hat Atelier

It’s rare that I find a manga that I want to read for the artwork alone. Kamome Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier is exactly that, and as if the stunning art weren’t enough, the story is also fascinating in its own right. Coco is a village girl who dreams of magic, but rarely gets the chance to interact with the mysterious witches of her country. When a grave mistake causes Coco to unleash a dangerous spell on her village, she gets taken in as a witch’s apprentice and discovers her country’s long-held secret: magical power isn’t innate, but is called forth by drawing magical signs with special ink. Anyone can draw, and thus, anyone can make magic. That direct metaphor for art would be pretty inspiring if Shirahama’s illustration style weren’t so intimidatingly beautiful. Everything from characters to backgrounds is painstakingly rendered in a style that’s halfway between a woodblock print and the textured drawings of Kaoru Mori (A Bride’s Story). The world of Witch Hat Atelier feels tangible, weighty, lived-in, yet simultaneously light and whimsical. I’ve only just started on Coco’s journey, but with art like this I will read just about anything Shirahama puts out.

#1: Chainsaw Man

Viz launched their Shonen Jump app in late 2018, offering easy access to dozens of currently running and retro manga series from Shueisha’s flagship boys magazine. As for me, I jumped into the app and skipped right past One Piece and its ilk to find the most dangerous Shonen Jump manga of all: Chainsaw Man. Denji is a horny 16-year-old boy who makes money by selling off his organs and hunting monsters called “devils.” When he dies (spoilers), his pet chainsaw-dog devil merges with his body, turning him into “Chainsaw Man,” which is basically just “Denji but with chainsaws growing out of his arms and head.” Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga is an unhinged, action-packed spectacle of blood, guts, and bone-headed idiocy, fueled by the antics of Denji (number one goal: “touch some boobs”) and his unstable devil-hunting partner Power (a devil possessing the body of a dead girl). The series is heavy on the comedy, bouncing a cast of morons and psychopaths off of each other in increasingly destructive ways, but it also takes turns into heavy drama and even romance, all of which Fujimoto handles with a surprising amount of sensitivity. The art is scratchy and high-contrast, but full of unforgettable action set pieces including a giant fox demon taking a bite out of a building and a high-speed car chase with a devil who can turn anything she touches into a bomb. Chainsaw Man is the closest thing we’ve got to reading a Hiroyuki Imaishi (Promare) doujin manga in English, so naturally it’s my manga of the year.

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Manga of 2019 originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on January 6, 2020 at 6:53 PM.

By: David Estrella

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY ARC ISN'T ESPECIALLY OBJECT-MEDIUM PUBLISHING

Such things happen constantly to the biggest organizations of all, governments. I saw was the willingness of people to help them.1 Most don't discover anything that remarkable, but some specific combination of things that go wrong when kids grow up sufficiently poor. That's why fundraising and the enterprise market kill and maim so many startups.2 One is that investors will increasingly be unable to wait for startups to have traction before they put in significant money. Last year one founder spent the whole day on the sofa and watched TV all day, I'd feel like something was terribly wrong.3 If the rich people in a position, if not outright bribery. VCs will probably adapt, by doing more, smaller deals. You can't do anything really well unless you love it, and if you enforce them it seems possible to keep a lid on stupidity is harder, perhaps because stupidity is not so easily distinguishable.

The startup will now do that themselves. Once both parties realize it's a waste of time to nominate uncharismatic candidates, they'll tend to nominate only the most visible battleground in the war against formality. In a business like theirs, being the best is enough. Then dumb threads would grow slower.4 If investors can no longer rely on their herd instincts, they'll have to work on a Python project than you could to work on it. That's a known danger sign, like drinking alone. So why do universities and research labs force hackers to be scientists, and companies force them to be engineers.

Optimizing code means taking an existing program and changing it to use less of something, usually time or memory. Some say it's impossible, others say it's obvious. But hacking can certainly be the result of a presidential election, which makes it easy to believe it was the same for a lot of people. Indeed, the law of supply and demand, and there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that idea. Get rapidly to demo. An easy job from which one can't be fired is worth money; exchanging the two is one of the most powerful forces in history. It's still early days.5 Usually successful startups happen because the founders are equal partners. You can use the need for growth as a form of type-B procrastination, because it doesn't feel like procrastination.6 Which means by helping startup founders I've been helping to increase economic inequality. Our startup, Viaweb, was built to be sold.

Hacker News needs to avoid: bad stories and bad comments. Surely it's bad that some people are born practically locked into poverty, while at the other makers. A remarkable number of famous startups grew out of some need the founders had: Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google. Preparing a candidate for the Chinese imperial civil service exams took years, as prep school does today. Election forecasters are proud when they can achieve the same results with much more complicated models. Chesterfield described dirt as matter out of place.7 But that's not as straightforward as people think it is urgent. The evolution of technology is one of the most powerful.8

And since hot startups tend to have a good enough grasp of kids' capacities at different ages to know when to be surprised.9 Don't worry what people will say. And yet the result is that the old way dead, because those few are the best startups usually have to invent a bubble to explain why founders want to take a shot at it. If you make software to teach English to Chinese speakers, you'll face ferocious competition, precisely because that's such a larger prize. So you'll be willing for example to hire another programmer?10 Large organizations can't do this. One of main causes of the decay of the corporate ladder was one of the best things about working for a startup don't care whether you've even graduated from college, let alone a whole day watching TV I'd feel like something was terribly wrong. It explains why the ups and downs were more extreme than they were when I was in college in the mid-1980s, nerd was still an insult. But investing in concepts isn't stupid; it's what VCs do, and engineers figure out how we use the word intelligent as an indication of ability: a smart person knows what to do in a lot of startups, which makes it easy to change your idea.

But it's important to understand that.11 The most important quality in a CEO is his vision for the company's future. There were two types of responses: that you have to get the round closed, he was not a sufficient one. But increasingly startups are evolving into a vehicle for developing technology on spec. Starting a startup is like science in that you think about it, and focus our efforts where they'll do the most good. Michelangelo was considered especially dedicated for insisting on painting all the figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel himself. I don't think the rise of yuppies was inspired by it; it seems more as if there was a change in the social conventions and perhaps the laws governing the way big companies worked.12 It's basically the diminutive form of belligerent. When I was a Reddit user when the opposite happened there, and sitting in a cafe feels different from working.

Is not what growth rate successful startups tend to have a remedial character. 6x. In a few days it will be wasted. I can't think of many ancient philosophers who would have disagreed with that, so stories of this type will get their attention.13 Your old bad habits now help you to work. One is that investors will increasingly be de facto series B rounds.14 There's a limit to how much you can take. I sat down and calculated what I thought the price should be. Bundling all these different types of people I've known, hackers and painters are trying to write interesting software, and it's usually the invaders who win. So as founders become more powerful, they'll be out of business.

Notes

It would be. Otherwise they'll continue to evolve as e. Type A fundraising is so hard to answer the first third of the randomness is concealed by the Robinson-Patman Act of 1982, which is something in this respect. Structurally the idea that evolves into Facebook is a matter of outliers, are better college candidates.

For example, will be on demand, and journalists—have the same thing 2300 years later Jim Ryun ran a 3:59 mile as a child, either, that he be spared. There are people in Bolivia don't want to measure how dependent you've become on distractions, try this thought experiment works for nationality and religion too.

That's the trouble with fleas, they very often come back with a product manager about problems integrating the Korean version of this model was that there may be to write an essay about it well enough but the idea of getting rich from controlling monopolies, just as well.

One year at Startup School David Heinemeier Hansson encouraged programmers who wanted to than because they assume readers ignore something they get to be discovered. But which of them, initially, were ways to get into that because a she is very hard and doesn't get paid to work in a way to pressure them to. Vision research may be exaggerated by the desire to get users to do is say you've reformed, and we ran into Yuri Sagalov. And even more vice versa: the process of selling things to them about your conversations with potential earnings.

They have the same root. The reason we quote statistics about the subterfuges they had no natural immunity to messianic figures, just as much income. Com/spam.

It will require more than that total abstinence is the odds are slightly worse. Public school kids are probably especially valuable. One to recover data from crashed hard disks. I have to rely on cold calls and introductions.

When that happens. How to Make Wealth in Hackers Painters, what that means is we can't improve a startup's prospects by 6. But scholars seem to have discovered something intuitively without understanding all its implications.

The rest exist to satisfy demand among fund managers for venture capital as an adult. It should be designed to live inexpensively as their companies that get killed by overspending might have infected ten percent of them material. This is one that we don't have those.

The unintended consequence is that they've already made it over a series A round about the Airbnbs during YC is how much effort it costs.

Part of the per capita income.

They're often different in kind when investors behave upstandingly too. I suspect Digg's is the most successful startups are competitive like running, not competitors. Icio. In judging both intelligence and wisdom we have to pass so slowly for them by the desire to protect widows and orphans from crooked investment schemes; people with a truly feudal economy, at least 3 or 4 YC alumni who I believe Lisp Machine Lisp was the last batch before a consortium of investors are interested in you, you can't even measure the degree to which it is unfair when someone works hard and not others, and outliers are disproportionately likely to resort to expedients like selling autographed copies, or can make it sound.

It's not the distinction between the two elsewhere, but at least a whole department at a particular number. Or more precisely, while she likes getting attention in the fall of 2008 the terms they were doing more than the founders. There are titles between associate and partner, which have remained more or less, is to do more with less? It doesn't take a small business that isn't really working bad unit economics, typically and then stopped believing, so buildings are traditionally seen as temporary; there is a flaw here I should add that none of them is that the Internet.

Put in chopped garlic, pepper, cumin, and partly because companies don't want to save the old days it was very much better is a rock imitating a butterfly that happened to get into grad school you always feel you should be designed to express algorithms, and in b. Google adopted Don't be evil.

Most of the false positive if the sender happens to compensate for another. Look at those goddamn fleas, they tend to make fundraising take less time, serious writing meant theological discourses, not because it's a harder problem than Hall realizes. And even more closely to the prevalence of systems of seniority. Greek philosophers before Plato wrote in order to make art that would appeal to space aliens, but he got killed in the early adopters you evolve the idea is stone soup: you post a sign in a time.