#The constant stimuli sometimes tricks my Brain into thinking it's not enough

[slightlyrebelliouswriter23]

hey so i'm hoping to get some writing advice about creative burnout? like i seem to write in fits and spurts. some months i can churn out a oneshot or chapter everyday and some months i can do one (1) creative thing only. so i'm wondering how to prevent creative burnout and how to just create more smoothly <3 thank you!

Creative Burnout & How To Ward Against It

First, I’d like to preface this all by saying you’re definitely not alone. You probably already know this, but sometimes it’s nice to be reminded.

I know from personal experience that creative burnout can leave you feeling hopeless, detached from yourself—the kind of identity crisis no one needs in 2020. 

So buckle in, folks. It’s a dosy.

I. The Symptoms

Not to be the local WebMD page here, but signs of burnout can include:

Procrastination (more than usual)

Dreading writing and feeling stuck or overly perfectionistic when you try

Physical tiredness and/or irritability

Feeling like everything is monotonous

It’s more than just writer’s block. It’s a physical and emotional exhaustion response to something that goes deeper than a simple lack of inspiration. In my experience, and from a bit of research, I’ve found that what your brain is really looking for is dopamine.

Dopamine is essentially your brain’s chemical reward system for doing something interesting or exciting to you. As someone who is diagnosed with ADHD, I have chronically low levels of dopamine, so this is a constant struggle for me—but it is absolutely made worse by creative burnout.

II. The Problem

Studies have shown that the more we do A Thing the less that thing will give us dopamine (unless a component of the activity changes regularly). This is because eventually our brains desensitise to the stimuli provided by the activity, and subsequently, we become disengaged.

But it’s not necessarily The Thing (i.e. writing) that becomes boring. Actually, more than a few factors could be at play here, and the first step to finding a solution is to identify the problem.

1. ENVIRONMENT LACKS EXCITEMENT/CHANGE—

Sometimes, the monotony of everyday life can feed creative burnout. This becomes especially applicable in quarantine when you’re not leaving your house.

What we don’t realise is that even something as small as the variables of driving to and from work, or interacting with passing coworkers, gives us dopamine. So if you have the same routine every day that does not involve any added variables, your brain will begin staunching that dopamine supply.

2. EITHER TOO EASY OR TOO CHALLENGING—

In 1975, Hungarian-American psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, coined the term “flow”, which refers to a heightened state of creativity and concentration on an activity. Csikszentmihalyi posited that if your skill level is equal to the level of challenge in any given activity, you will experience this state of flow.

The chart below is taken from Csikszentmihalyi’s own study on the subject of flow and motivation. It examines “your skill level” on the x axis in relation to the “challenge level” on the y axis.

Essentially:

Too much challenge + not enough skill = anxiety, worry (which might lead to procrastination and perfectionism)

Too much skill + not enough challenge = boredom, apathy (which might lead to monotony, irritability, and other depression-like symptoms)

Skill level = Challenge level = Flow

3. NOT ENOUGH “ACTIVE” STIMULATION—

When it comes to dopamine seeking, there is a distinct difference between active and passive stimulation in the brain.

Active stimulation is any form of activity that you have to actively engage in. For instance; exercising, doing a crossword puzzle, or reading a book. These kinds of activities not only give you dopamine, they also facilitate critical thinking and problem solving thought processes, which act as catalysts for creativity.

Passive stimulation, on the other hand, comes in the form of television, social media, and YouTube. It’s anything you can consume without having to actively engage. Passive stimulation will indeed give your brain dopamine, however, it won’t activate your creativity.

The problem also lies in the speed at which you receive the dopamine from passive activities. Passive stimulation is so easy to access that the more you consume, the harder it becomes to pick up active stimulation. Your brain expects a hit of dopamine just by picking up a phone or turning on the TV—it becomes addicted to the quick fix of a Netflix binge.

III. The Solutions

Based on the problems mentioned above, I am going to list a few solutions. Keeping in mind that not every solution will work for everyone, these can act as both preventative measures and remedies for someone who is currently burned out.

1. CHANGE UP YOUR ENVIRONMENT/ROUTINE—

Aim to do at least one thing per day that will add “variables” to the monotony. This can be as simple as going on a long walk, dressing up in that bold outfit you always wanted to wear to the office but never did, or sitting at a different workspace in your home.

Anything you can do that’s simple, but might provide an extra variable to your day to spice things up. Note: this shouldn’t be the same thing every day.

2. CHALLENGE YOURSELF MORE—

If you find yourself bored by your work, try challenging yourself more. This could mean setting goals for yourself that go a bit beyond what you’ve been doing. 

For example, if you’ve been writing 500 words per day, see if you can beat your own word count every day for the next week. If you’ve been writing mainly fluff pieces, switch it up and do an angst piece. See if you can write a book in a month, or start a blog where you don’t write fiction at all!

Anything you can do to add a little kick to your workload. Note: Beware of challenging yourself too much! This can lead straight back into burnout.

3. CHALLENGE YOURSELF LESS—

If you’re on the flip side of that coin, and find that you are anxious, procrastinating, and perfectionistic when it comes to writing, fret not. Just because you’re experiencing any of these things, doesn’t mean you’re incapable of doing the job with your skillset.

It just means your perception of the job needs to be shifted.

Procrastination, at its heart, is a fear of failure, which results in actively avoiding the negative emotions associated with the task that causes this fear. Perfectionism is a type of procrastination that is a combination of a fear of failure and a fear of success (or, more accurately, other’s critiques of your success) all at once.

Neither have anything to do with your actual skillset, but they have everything to do with your perception of your skillset. Obviously, this is a harder thing to fix, as it has to do with deeply ingrained levels of self-esteem.

What I can offer you is a tactic to trick your mind into thinking you’re capable.

If you have a task, big or small, and you are feeling overwhelmed by it (like you might go curl up in bed and scroll Tumblr), immediately break that task up into smaller tasks. Keep breaking up the smaller tasks until you have the smallest possible part of the bigger task without doing nothing.

Then do that smallest possible thing.

If your goal is to write a 2000 word one shot, a small part of that task is writing half of it. An even smaller part of that task is breaking the one shot up into “scenes” and writing one scene. For instance:

Jude wakes up to a sore throat, a runny nose, and a fever.

She tries to go to work, but Cardan, being the mother hen that he is, threatens to never make her another grilled cheese sandwich (her favourite food) ever again if she doesn’t stay home.

Jude agrees begrudgingly, and Cardan sits her down in front of the TV with a bottle of Gatorade. He leaves to go get medicine from the store.

When Cardan comes back, Jude is worse than before. He makes her soup and saltine crackers and spoon feeds her.

She complains the whole time and, in her feverish state, threatens to never buy him another bottle of wine (his favourite food) ever again if he doesn’t let her feed herself.

Each bullet point represents one “scene” of about 200-400 words each. Obviously, there will be more details that you work out as you write. But with these five smaller scenes, your goal is no longer writing the 2000 word one shot. Your goal is writing the first of the five scenes.

If you complete the smallest possible task, you can stop, and you’ll still feel like you’ve accomplished something because you can cross off that task from your list. But chances are, by the time you cross off one task, you may have inspiration enough to keep going.

4. ENGAGE IN ACTIVE STIMULATION—

Since active stimulation has been proven to turn on the creative “tap”, try incorporating more of these activities into your daily routine:

Exercise: As the resident couch potato, I hate to say that exercising is good for creativity, but it is. Even if it’s just going on a short walk, so long as you’re moving.

Reading: Sometimes you have plenty of ideas, but no words to fit those ideas. Fill your well of words by carving out an hour or two each day for reading a good book.

The Creative Process: In the writing world, the creative process is a process of about 20-30 minutes that the writer partakes in every day before they start writing. This process should be creative, but also have nothing to do with writing. You can try colouring in a colouring book, painting, organising a page in your bullet journal. Anything that is creative but does not make you think about everything you have to do that day. Think of it as creative meditation.

Listen to music: Having APD, I personally can’t listen to music while I write. However, studies have shown that if you listen to at least ten songs per day, it will significantly benefit your dopamine levels and overall mood. If you’re like me and prefer to work in silence, maybe stick on a couple songs during your creative process. If you can manage music and writing together, get out those headphones!

5. KEEP A REGULAR SCHEDULE—

I know this is the most cliche point in the book, but it’s valid. This doesn’t mean do the same thing at the same time every day over and over, because ultimately we’re looking to avoid monotony. 

But having pillars of structure to bolster the excitement can definitely work to keep you from slipping into burnout. Going to sleep, waking up, and having your meals at relatively the same time every day are good examples of this. 

Feel free to change up the things you do between breakfast and lunch, but make sure you have those pillars of consistency so your brain knows that a break is on the horizon and doesn’t get tired.

6. PACE YOURSELF—

This is particularly difficult for those of us who are coming out of a creative burnout, but I urge you to pay special attention to this one. If we are suddenly hit by inspiration and the writing is flowing and flowing and flowing, eventually we will hit the point of highest dopamine capacity for writing.

Not putting a check on the flood of inspiration coming out of a creative burnout, I’d argue, is actually a guarantee that many of us will experience burnout all over again. It becomes this vicious cycle in which we are trapped.

While it feels great to write non-stop and receive immediate validation for that work, try to limit yourself to how much you’re writing and how immediately you post your writing (if you plan on posting it).

Whenever I finish a one shot or a chapter of something, I like to allow at least one day for editing before I post. This timeframe is important, because it acts as a buffer of rest between writing marathons. 

You can take however long you need for the editing process, but definitely make sure you have a set amount of time in place. Otherwise, your brain might not have enough time to come down from what is essentially a writing high, and you will always need to reach greater heights in order to achieve that same level of dopamine.

~~~~

Overall, the most important things to take away from all of this are: 

Change up your environment

Keep your brain actively stimulated 

Have pillars of structure between which you can run about chaotically to your heart’s content

PACE YOURSELF!

Hope this helped. Happy writing!

-Em 🖤🗡

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[thanatophobia-thoughts]

Moving on from Routine, let’s look at Emotional Self-Care. This is Self-Care that you use to improve your emotional stability. This is what Emotional Self-Care can take the form of (though I do not use all of these; I will talk more about the ones I use):

Comfort Food

Taking a “mental health day”

Napping and/or Sleeping In

Binge-Watching Comfort Shows/Reading a Comfort Book/Listening to a Comfort Podcast/Comfort Music/Comfort Video Games/Etc.

Long Baths

Venting

Reflecting on the Good

Meditation

Taking a Walk Outside or Hitting a Treadmill

Turning away from Social Media

Lighting a scented candle

Giving Gifts

Crying/Screaming/Emotional Outburst

Breaking Breakables

Playing with and/or Petting a Pet or Animal

Telling Other People You Don’t Want To Interact With Them (Right Now)/Boundary Setting

Taking care of Plants

Journaling

Cleaning

Treating Yourself (non-food)

Every time I googled “emotional self-care”, I got some things like “set boundaries”, “learn to say no”, and “create a support system” – all of which are very good things, but they don’t really fit the quick regulation criteria that I’m going for here.

So, which of these do I personally use? Comfort Food, Mental Health Days, Sleeping In, Comfort Media, Venting, Reflecting on the Good, Meditation, Hitting a Treadmill, Scented Candle, Giving Gifts, Crying, Animals, Boundary Setting, Cleaning, and Treating Myself.

I’d take care of plants but right now I don’t have a good space for plants.

I’ll look at comfort food last, because I have a list of food.

Mental Health Days, I usually try to schedule ahead of time, around days or times I know are going to be hectic. I know that after a convention, for example, I need “cooldown days”, so usually I will take the following Monday-Wednesday off from work to cooldown from the convention.

If I don’t know ahead of time, I do feel comfortable enough to call in sick, but I vastly prefer being able to plan it, simply because of who I am as a person. It is sometimes a necessity. Sometimes there is just too much going on, and I need to step away from everything. Usually on these days, I will sleep in, or sleep for most of the day, with the promise to go back to normal tomorrow – and that is how it should be.

These are tricks to put you back in line in caring for yourself! To get you back to normal!

Now, most weekends I do sleep in a little. I wake up every day at 6am, so on weekends, I will absolutely let myself sleep in to like, 9-11. It’s a good thing I have this blog on a schedule.

Binge-Consuming Comfort Media: I do not consider this the same as observing New Media, because often for me that is a Personal Self Care, and not necessarily Emotional Self Care. It can be, but more often than not, it gets my thinking fired up and engages me in a wholly different fashion. For example, I consider playing Final Fantasy XII to be a “comfort game”, but I will not consider playing Elden Ring for the first time to be “comfort”, so much as Personal, because the former I have already done, while the latter is something new and is creating new experiences for me. One regulates my emotions, the other does not do so in a foreseeable fashion. In new games, I do not know the experiences I will have, whereas with old games, I can predict them.

I will usually use Binge-Consuming Media in downtime that I have nothing else to fill, but do not have the energy to try something new right then (usually with the promise that I will return to new things in the near future, usually the following day when this happens on a weekend, or the next weekend if this happens on Sunday). Binge-Consuming Media also tends to occur normally on Weekday Evenings, as I tend to lack any desire for new media after work. It thus helps me to stay in a calm mood throughout the night, and prepares me for the next day of work by maintaining mood, rather than changing it.

Venting has to be done with care; I have friends I can vent to, but the vast majority of them only end up aggravating me more when I vent to them. Venting is something I tend to reserve for after I’ve figured out what I’m going to do, and I just need someone else to know my pain, because very rarely are people actually able to give me decent advice. Yet, venting is still useful because it lets me finally express it, and lets other people into my life, which is healing, and allows me to move forward without feeling like I’m keeping a secret.

Akin to that, reflecting on the good is a bit more of a solitary action, but it’s useful to remember that a “bad day” isn’t a bad life. To think of the people who love me, to think of the good things that did happen, even amidst the bad, and to remember there are more good things to come. After a particularly bad day at work, remembering good things, good phone calls with customers, and just good people, is always helpful, and can prepare me to continue through the rest of the day.

Meditation is something I try to do every day, and I do feel that it helps me focus on the moment, as well as helps me work through my thoughts when I’m not meditating.

Back when gyms were safe, hitting the treadmill was great for days I just couldn’t fucking convince myself to do my weight training. It still got me in the gym, it still got me exercising, and it helped me beat out the anger while listening to a podcast or music. I felt like I could breathe. I miss this, a lot, and I look forward to being able to return to this, or getting the “Just Dance” games for my home so I can do a similar thing, without going to the gym. I was then usually able to resume weight lifting the next day – and it kept me from breaking my streak of going to the gym, back in the day.

Aromatherapy is just a thing. I enjoy it, it helps me, and I love candles, haha.

Giving Gifts is also something I like to do. Making other people happy, makes me happy, and this is often a surefire way to do that. It can be as simple as a bit of chocolate, it doesn’t have to be anything extravagant. Of course, I have to make sure I am financial stable enough to do that.

Crying – when I need to. Sometimes I will have to kind of force it, by putting on a movie I know will make me cry, because just bursting into tears from stress without additional stimuli can be hard, but once it’s done, it is so relieving, and it allows my brain to start to function again without feeling as much in a daze.

It’s true I do have pets, and they’re kind of around me everyday, so this is more of a routine one – the animals are a constant source of comfort, but if you don’t have pets, visiting a pet store may be beneficial to give their animals a bit of affection, or going to an animal shelter. Or perhaps watching cute animal videos if those aren’t options.

Boundary Setting is also important. While sometimes, it can be good to help others when you’re going through a thing – I find it helpful sometimes – at other times it is just too much. Being clear on that, and also giving your friend some idea of when to “check in”, is good. It also lets your friend know a bit of a time period, so they know it isn’t a permanent block on conversing. Being open and clear about your situation can only do you good when it comes to your friends – and checking in with them when you’re ready!

Cleaning is oddly enough something I do when I’m preparing for something that is Good. I feel like I must cleanse the area in preparation of the New Good Thing. I will do this when I buy a new gaming console, or a long-awaited game, for instance. It makes things feel fresh and rejuvenated. It lets me walk into the New Thing as if it is a New Thing, and it starts it off on good footing. Some of the anxiety and anticipation of it, is quelled.

Treating Myself, when it’s non-food items, is usually things like clothing for me, or new PJs lately. I will also invest in books I plan to read, one day, eventually, cute Star Wars things, shows and/or movies to watch that are new, or things that generally speaking bring joy into my life. Sometimes emotional regulation, is also about reward. If you’re doing good in your life, you absolutely SHOULD be rewarded for it! Otherwise, why bother with balance and moderation? Why not live a hedonistic lifestyle? That would be far more pleasant if balance and moderation don’t have rewards. Not all emotional regulation is just to stop being sad, it’s also to be vindicated and celebrate good events. Celebrating IS regulating, when it calls for it, obviously. So I’m not encouraging here spending your money on whims because you are sad, but spending it more when you’re happy, and doing good.

And then we get to Comfort Foods. What do I use for comfort foods?

Chipotle Gouda Pasta Salad

Lime-Chipotle Pasta Salad

“Chicken” Fried Steak (Scare quotes because I’m a vegetarian so it’s fake meat)

“Tuna” Salad

Cheesecake, particularly raspberry white chocolate, or turtle.

Ice cream, particularly from Cold Stone, but usually either Rocky Road or Raspberry with Chocolate Chunks. There’s also Love Potion #9 which I have to drive a significant distance for….

Extra Lattes (note the extra – I already have these planned in with my meal plans).

Hot Chocoalte

Potatoes O’Brien and Gravy

The idea behind Comfort Food: Eating tasty food often restores a mood, or at least puts us in a better mindset. They aren’t always the healthiest things, though they aren’t necessarily unhealthy. They have to be done in moderation, as you see I indicate with lattes it’s “extra” lattes that go on the comfort food side. I usually have two decaf lattes a week, one on Wednesday, and one on Friday.

Comfort Foods are for a “limited time”. An extra latte means I don’t get one the following day, or I don’t get one every single day of the week. I take the comfort it offers when it’s needed, and resume my usual drinking habits.

Things like Pasta Salad are for weeks when I need a bit of help, or when I’ve done good, because they’re multiple serving things. So like, my birthday week, eating a pasta is good. Or a week where everything went to hell, and I can’t focus on making something “new” and I just need to eat – but then it’s right back to normality after that week. This is not have pasta for an entire month, this is a way to set intentions, and work on orienting myself back to normal with food I love, and food I can make with my eyes closed.

Single-serving things, like cheesecake or hot chocolate, are usually Reward self-care. Like fuck yeah, I did great, I should give myself a little treat. It encourages my good behavior, and does not become an indulgence. It also ends up “planned”, and so the rest of the meals work around that indulgence so I don’t go overboard with it, either.

Knowing what foods, and what I use them for, helps me to use them when they will be most beneficial for me. Things like “extra lattes” also makes me think: Do I really want to do this now, or wait until the day I’m going to have it? Is there a reason I need it now? What will I do after I have it? How does this impact everything else in the balance?

So these are kind of the “quick trick” emotional self-care tools I use. Obviously, you should try to have a steady way of regulating your emotions, but shit happens. Cars break down, work days suck, friends are angry, people die…we need to have tools to get “back to normal”, or close enough to normal.

And you should also, absolutely, take time to treat yourself in self-care! If you don’t reward yourself, what’s the point in being “balanced”, and not just living a hedonistic lifestyle? That’s why comfort food as rewards is a thing! It’s why you can use these as rewards, if it helps, for doing good!

These are just what I do, and what I suggest. These are ideas to get you thinking about what you could put on a list, and how that could help you. If these same ideas work for you, great! If not, you just have to feel out yourself to determine what will help you! Brainstorm with your loved ones!

[thekoreanlass]

In the Korean standards, AI Robot stories–in one or more ways–must be one of the trends since this is the second time, after I Am Not A Robot, someone attempted on challenging the ‘somehow’ refreshing theme of falling in love with robots in the K-drama world.

An ambitious attempt at its finest, robot stories that centers about romance while trying to remain in its sci-fi element is quite a challenge that sometimes backfires if not executed properly, but I must say–though it’s still early for that–Are You Human Too? consistently succeeds in both aspects.

Not only that, they do the romance and the sci-fi while the male lead plays a double role of an AI robot, Namsin3, and the rude human counterpart Nam Shin. Isn’t that just amazing?

It’s not new to play a double role, but not everyone in Kdramaland tries to play the part and succeed in it. So, I find it even more interesting that Seo Kang Joon (first found this hottie from Roommate Season 1!) will play the role.

He and Gong Seung Yeon are actually the main reason why I waited for this drama and why I am watching it now. They’re just two great actors that I watched grow like a proud mother and now the two of them are even working on the same project I wish people would truly appreciate more.

So, why do you need to watch Are You Human Too? I’m gonna give you all the reasons to! I mean, I don’t find any single bad bone about this drama so I guess I’m just going to talk about how good it is for today.

An interesting plot with a lot of jaw dropping twists

What interest me about the plot is how carefully woven the story is. The pacing, flow and twists are well positioned and surprisingly the twists were totally something I didn’t foresee coming, which is what I like. I like that the story stays away from being easily predictable. You can’t just tell what will happen next and then when you thought this and that person is what they seem to be, they apparently aren’t what you think they are

Like if I were to give some instances in the story to prove my point how insanely unpredictable it is, although I already know what a trickster Nam Shin’s grandfather is, there are many times when we are shown so many side’s of him: (1) He’s that typical evil President of a corporation that can dirty his hands to succeed in everything, but then another moment he suddenly becomes senile, plagued with Alzeimer’s; (2) It gets revealed that he’s really only pretending to have Alzeimer’s to fool the people around him and test who is really on his side. Namshin3 finds out about the lie once he touched his grandfather’s hand; (3) Later, while everyone’s around the place, David goes somewhere in Nam Corp’s building and see a bunch of supercomputers in an unknown room and there he meets Mr. Nam. It’s when I realized while everyone thought he doesn’t know about Namshin3, all this time he’s just really pretending not to know he’s a robot. And what’s worse is that he actually sponsored the making of this robot! I’m still not sure what is his intention besides having the best kind of technology to bring in more money to his company, but it appears to me the mastermind to all that’s happening is this old man that everyone underestimated all this time.

    There are a lot of other twists in the story, but I’ve given out a huge chunk of spoilers so, this is me saying watch the drama to know more!

It’s just so full with mystery and a bunch of shocking revelations that would come in the speed of light that you will not be able to guess when it will struck you.

Albeit all the drama, action, mystery and revelations though, I am pleased to say that the drama doesn’t confuse. It’s sequencing despite the flashbacks is sufficient and there’s enough time to dwell on one thing and then jump to another. Nothing’s been rushed or dragged on.

Plus, the story’s really engrossing. I’m not really fond of robot movies or dramas, but the story of an AI robot and romance? Sure. Not a big deal. So far this drama has sent me all the positive feels and heart flutters whenever the two main characters interact. Namshin3’s just such a warm robot, despite him always saying he doesn’t have any emotions, he understands them and because he does, he does what he can to respond to those feelings that Kang So Bong (Gong Seung Yeon) shows around him.

Intriguing Romance With a lot of cute moments

So, from what you already read above and what seems to be the obvious, Namshin3, who is pretending to be a human, is very intelligent. His super brain stores a lot of information and he can connect to the world wide web quicker than your 5G connection.

However, besides his extraordinary abilities, Namshin3 happens to be a quick learner and being constantly around Kang So Bong made him adapt to her. Becoming a constant stimuli, it seems that So Bong managed to input new learning in him that only she managed to do. Perhaps because she’s the only person that treated him fairly? Like he’s not just a piece of junk metal that they can throw away so easily? The reason why he follows her like a puppy is still beyond me, but I guess this is the main reason why.

And these information that he adopted from her became the reason why he managed to freely think for himself and not just follow the orders of others. It was especially cute whenever he sees an imaginary image of So Bong and thinks it’s an error in his system. I don’t know. I feel like it just makes him more human than robot that he is constantly thinking of her as if he could harbor some feelings for her to that level. And then, I also like it whenever he can tell when she’s in danger and he does his best to get to her the fastest that he can. Plus, I like those moments when he just smiles at her as if she means the world to him.

It just feels so amazing to think there’s this guy that can be that way with her and in those moments I truly forget him being a robot.

With that said, I really love the pairing despite So Bong’s constant in denial moments in the beginning. I think the way she acted towards him was just normal if I am going to put myself in her shoes, knowing that it’s really going to be hard to wrap your head around the fact that she was looking at a robot that looked so human. It will be hard to get used to that. However, I like that So Bong found how good his heart is (even if he doesn’t have one!) and treated him like her equal, even more her friend and then someone she finally likes. It’s just so heartwarming that in the story there’s this one person that believes in Namshin3 even if the world is after him.

The chemistry between them is just so real!

The remaining question I only have is how will they end? I mean, will they even have a happy ending? Knowing that Namshin3 is a robot, no matter how intelligent he is, it will be forever unfair for So Bong that he will possibly not ever feel the same thing she feels for him. And even if he does, he won’t be able to fulfill some duties only a man can in the biological sense.

And then there’s also the human Nam Shin. Since he has woken up, can he learn to appreciate Namshin3 and Kang So Bong? What kind of relationship will form between the three of them? Sadly, I’ll have to find out in the next episodes. Haha.

Double Role Genius

For his first ever major role in the small screen, Seo Kang Joon did a stellar job in portraying two characters–the robot Namshin3 and the human Nam Shin.

Namshin3 is like the good alter ego while the human Nam Shin is the jerk counterpart. Seo Kang Joon is so good at portraying the two roles that you’ll be able to easily distinguish one from the other. You will definitely fall in love with Namshin3 and instantly loath the arrogant human Nam Shin. And I am saying this because you will only know if someone is effective in his role if they succeed in evoking feelings in you that a bad actor won’t be able to do.

So, in a nutshell, I can say that Seo Kang Joon has definitely grown a lot as an actor in this drama more than his past roles. His acting and expressions have gotten even better and to think he’s acting the role of a robot, he must have worked hard to know how a robot should move, speak and act. And his hard work reflects with what we can see in every episode. I can say that I am very pleased with him.

Allies or Enemies?

To be honest, there are more people to doubt than trust in this drama. I think the only person that has good intention towards Namshin3 would be Kang So Bong and her gang.

But with the people surrounding the human Nam Shin, it’s just hard to tell who your friends are. Like, Oh Laura (Kim Sung Ryung), for example. She may be Namshin3’s creator in the image of the human Nam Shin, but because she doesn’t want to trouble her real son, she can’t be anymore concerned with the robot she created. The only time she realized his importance was when So Bong traded for the kill switch and when Nam Shin tried to trick her through Namshin3 to uncover the truth about her true feelings for the robot.

Then, there’s also Young Hoon (Lee Joon Hyuk), Nam Shin’s loyal secretary and friend. I appreciate that he’s overprotective towards the real Nam Shin to the point I even had a theory he was gay and was head over heels for Nam Shin, but sometimes he just seem too suspicious that I can’t tell whether his intentions are pure and whether he’s on Nam Shin’s side because he truly cared for him like a brother. He’s just too mysterious for his own good and I am yet to figure him out.

Seo Ye Na (Park Hwan Hee) is so in love with the human Nam Shin that it’s scary to think what she can do for him.

Her character is quite annoying because she won’t just budge even if Nam Shin didn’t really like her. She’s so clingy and so persistent. But I admire her  for her loyalty to him that at the moment of his weakness, Nam Shin only trusted this girl. Nonetheless, this won’t erase the fact that I hate her for treating Namshin3 like trash. That’s just not human-like to do.

David (Choi Deok Moon), on the other hand, is one of the many characters that I have a very pleasant feelings for in the bieginning. He’s so nice and open-minded and cared for Namshin3 more than Laura did, that it’s hard for me to think that he’s teamed up with Nam Gun Ho (Park Yeong Gyu), aka Nam Shin’s grandfather, regarding the creation of Namshin3. His intention may be to protect his creation as a scientist, but I’m not too sure whether teaming up with Nam Gun Ho will bring him any good.

These characters are minor characters, but has significant roles in the lives of our main leads. No matter how annoying they are or how much I can’t stand them sometimes, their role is vital in resolving the mystery around Nam Shin. Only time will tell whether they will pick the right side in the end.

Over all

This may sound like I am exaggerating, but to tell you my own opinion, I think that Are You Human Too? is one of the best dramas to be released in 2018. Besides the interesting plot and cool twists and turns, the cast has a solid performance of their roles, though I must admit there are just things that sound too unrealistic (e.g. Namshin3 can consume food and water in small amounts–he’s still made from metal and all that so…). But other than that, I don’t have any other complaints about the drama.

It has surpassed my expectations in many ways–production, story line, theme song, character development, pacing, flow, execution–that it’s hard to define what I feel about it in a few words. Maybe some words can’t just be enough. So, I’ll just leave it to your own judgement what you think of it.

I’m recommending this drama if you want something sci-fi with cute romance and action here and there with a little suspense on the side and a lot of surprises!

Rating it, I’m gonna give this drama a 4.9 out of 5.

I’ll see you on my final review about this drama once it finishes.

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