#and ux research...what if i don't like it??

[heirloommtomatoes]

man like. how do u decide what to do w/ your life. if i’m not Passionate about it i feel like i’m wasting my life away but that’s such a tall ask and feels like such a moving target like.........

[protect-namine]

I love our designer soooo much. I love working with designers. I love talking with them while we have different perspectives (I ask questions to make sure a design is feasible on a technical level, they talk to me about research and design and how what we're doing is being validated with the people who will actually use the stuff we make). I just love being the person who executes someone's designs

[sirfrogsworth]

I am so tired of this brand pissing contest.

All of the metal bricks do pretty much the exact same thing. There isn't a better one. Just a slightly different user experience.

It basically comes down to 3 things. UX preference, ecosystem, friends/family.

Some people like the UX of iOS, some prefer Android. Either will do almost all of the same things. Android allows for more customization and tinkering. iOS tends to keep things stock but has more reliable apps—though Android development has improved.

Some people have PCs. Android and Google services tend to work better with a PC.

Some people have MacBooks and iPads. You would be silly not to get an iPhone at that point, because the integration of Apple products is seamless and kind of amazing.

And finally, what is everyone else in your group using? If they are mostly on iPhones, you will find communicating a little easier if you also have an iPhone.

There is one thing Apple does better than other manufacturers that I should include. Longevity. They support their devices for pretty much their entire lifespan. They allow software updates for as long as your phone will tolerate them. And since their hardware design is unified, you can always count on getting a well made product no matter the price point. No need to research each model to see if it is prone to break or has an exploding battery. This point makes me a little frustrated because so many iPhone users will upgrade every year for some reason. Unless there is a new feature you absolutely need, this is wasteful.

Android flagship phones tend to have decent longevity and get continued software updates. But there has always been an issue with the more budget models being forgotten about after a year and receiving no more software. You need to do a lot more research to see if the manufacturer of a particular line of phones has a history of quality manufacturing and good support or if they abandon their phones once the warranty period is up. I tend to steer people toward Pixel phones if they don't feel like doing the research. Google has been decent about long term support so far.

You have to evaluate your circumstances and choose the platform that will serve you best. In all honesty, you can make either work regardless. And you will probably have a few frustrations no matter which you choose.

Brand loyalty is stupid.

Pick what suits you best.

[as-if-and-only-if]

So, I think I'm finally going to apply to grad school for math!

But there are a few issues!

One issue is that I've got pretty severe ADHD. I think that means I ought to look for a professor first, and a school second. I think I need to find a particularly accommodating professor who's willing to take on unorthodox Ph.D. students.

Then there's the issue of: well, what do you want to do research in? And honestly, I kind of want to spend some time learning a lot of things in multiple areas of math. I already have a lot of exposure from taking mostly grad courses in undergrad, but I want to understand things more deeply. I don't want to be tied down to a specific area; generally, I'm interested in: understanding complex systems; connections between different fields of math; the foundations of "abstract nonsense"; fundamental theoretical physics; the places where group & representation & number theory come together; computer realizations of mathematical practice (UX for actually doing math research, knowledge organization, and formalization); and some more "philosophically-oriented" things which tend not to be part of any named fields. I've also got interdisciplinary inclinations and have some budding interest in nanotechnology; and I'd like to be in a place that mixes everything together, and exposes me to even more things to be interested in.

So really, I'm looking for either a professor or two who are also interested in all sorts of things, or a department that allows you the freedom to do all of this stuff at once! A lot of Ph.D. programs seem to signal that they prize specialization, but that's just not an option for me. Sure, I'll do a thesis about a particular thing, but ideally it'll involve a lot of things!

And that's another crucial desideratum: I want a vibrant culture. Far too often I hear about grad experiences in which the grad students are working away in isolation without much community or energy. I want to be around people who are excited about all of the things I'm excited about!

So, three things: accommodations for unorthodox working style; encouragement of interdisciplinary/wide-ranging interests; and a vibrant, exciting culture.

This is really a diary/processing post, but feel free to consider it a request-for-info post—if you happen to have any helpful ideas or connections, pls don't hesitate to share! :D

(I could also use some advice on how to find what I'm looking for, including pointers to groups of like-minded people or places to ask questions. Right now my strategy is "read the faculty bios on university websites, see if anything jumps out, and cold-email the professors", which, you know. We'll see how that goes.)

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Dear Agents, Writers are not Psychic, please auto include YOUR Trigger Warning Policies

Some background, because no one is going to click on the profile part of the page. I'm aware of that.

The first part of this is that I have an Anthropology degree, which the majority of the classes are concentrated in Systems, such as racism, sexism, etc. The BA would have had a certificate if I didn't have to travel 2-3 hours one way in order to get the certificate.

The second part is that I've been around the publishing industry inside of it, published by it, reading up on the history of it, reading an astounding number of writing advice manuals to track down one diagram and crying over that, to know how the industry works. I know I don't list all my credentials, but seriously, how long do you want a bio?

The third part is that I've worked with websites, UX (User Experience) and the whole idea of User Experience is that even if it functions, it doesn't mean it works without the ability to interface with humans.

And lastly, I have C-PTSD. I know how fucked up PTSD can be. And what a trigger feels like. What a flashback feels like. It's not OMG, I feel icky and have no emotional toll. It's I need a therapist to manage my triggers because it wears me out to have an anxiety/depression attack. And I know how fucked up triggers can be. I've written blog posts about it.

You are not everyone.

User experience is about Empathy. This means you realize: You are not everyone else. Everyone else is not you. They are not going to do what you think is best, so how do you make everyone happy through best practices?

Other agents aren't going to WANT what you want. They are selling different genres, they have different life experiences. Just because it works for you doesn't mean it works for anyone else. By saying, Well, every agent should do as I want, isn't helping anyone.

History

Before the 1900's, most stories were serialized, and only the popular ones got full books. Before the 1960's-1970's according to Steven King's On Writing, there were no Agents. You simply submitted to the publisher. (Agents should know their publishing history, I'm just saying... you should know the history of your own profession.)

Agents became a requirement in the 1990's, not the 1980's. Before that, you could hire a lawyer. And many early agents were lawyers.

This meant because of print tech, and the requirement to join a union, the way to submit to an agent was EXACTLY THE SAME.

The Neurdivergent rejoice. They are happy with this.

But then the internet hit in about the mid-2000's and then agents started to be paid more and more like crap. And then with the plummeting enjoyment, and the publishing industry realizing that they could dump people from their staff and PUT IT ALL ON THE AGENTS, the standardization of the forms fell with it.

Why would this be in UX terms? Well, now agents aren't doing it "for the money" and in basic psychology this means they want more individualistic things. You're likely to do it for the side money, you want to have it the way you want to have it, because what's the point if it's not fun? Thus the standardization in the industry falls apart as people put forth their own individualistic wills. (Do you need the fancy psychology terms. I can do that.)

And then with the internet the industry and everyone started to MAKE UP THEIR OWN RULES.

The ND people are crying. WTF.

Especially the autistic people who like structure and rules that are even and easy to understand. (I had a long conversations about this. I did the research.)

Why would someone want a different trigger policy than me?

People represent different genres and have different aims

This is where the empathy and the ability to actually go through other agent blogs comes in. You need to be able to read other agents, their genres and realize that writers have different genres and combination of genres they are submitting to.

You might be looking ONLY at contemporary Romance, but there are agents that represent Horror, Thrillers, and Mystery and dark fantasy. Even without that, there are subgenres of fiction that might *require* triggers be included. Abuse Romance is a thing (50 Shades) and there is Dystopian SFF.

The agents that rep these genres want the thrill of the surprise. The agent wants to not have to know what's up front to experience the story first hand. This is what I've read from those agents. The ones that rep Horror are more than likely to not want trigger warnings from my asking over and over again. And they are less likely to list a no list to the trigger list.

But those self-same agents *also* represent things like Romance. Because like everyone else on the planet, people like more than one genre.

BTW, out of all of the agents, the agents that rep Romance from my asking around, because no one else is crunching data are more likely to want trigger warnings, but I'm telling you it gets tricky when you're mixing Romance with Supernatural, Mystery, and Fantasy.

BTW, Fantasy and SFF as genres, RANGE WILDLY. So the triggers are going to be all over the map.

And for the people who rep Horror, etc, the reason why your (US) romance agents want trigger warnings is because romance works on a totally different emotional basis compared to Horror. Expecting your potential clients to know that and your fellow agents to follow suit when they have a totally different agenda is not reasonable.

This is where UX comes in. YOU, agent, Have do the work to bridge the gap between you and the other agents. If you all are going to have different policies about triggers, then writers are going to also do their best guesses and try for a middle.

People have different triggers than you.

I have a trigger around melamine floors. Do you have a trigger around melamine floors? Does it make your spine go cold it makes my spine go cold. Do you get a mild headache thinking about them especially if they are white? No? You don't?

Would it be reasonable for me to ask you to guess that about me?

Would it be reasonable for you to take all of my feelings about it because I never informed you this was the case?

If you're getting my drift:

LIST YOUR TRIGGERS. Not everyone has the same triggers. Write it out. Asking people to manage and guess your invisible triggers is unreasonable. It does harm to others. You don't want them to do harm to you, it's your responsibility to let people help you by making it known. 100% I know this as a person with C-PTSD and also with Sensory issues. It's not other people's responsibility if they don't know about it. It is 100% mine to let them know if I have an issue and it's too much. If they don't respect you after you have let them know, then the onus is on them, not before then. It's also anti-ND to expect people to *guess* your triggers. But it's also better for your mental health so people don't submit something you don't want.

Trauma *is* fucked up. But part of recovery is taking control and taking control of your triggers and processing them. So let people help you by you listing your triggers you don't want to see or be warned about in fiction.

Set clear boundaries

Goal-setting: Ask yourself questions like “What is the goal in setting a boundary or needing to set a boundary?”

Start small: Setting boundaries can be hard and uncomfortable. The key is to start small and focus on one at a time.

Be clear: Focus on what you want as clearly as possible.

Practice: If thinking about setting a boundary makes you nervous, write out what you want to say beforehand or practice stating a boundary in the mirror.

Keep it simple: Less is more with boundary setting. Try not to overload someone with too many details at first. Just pick the main thing that is bothering you and focus on that.

From the website.

Make your boundaries clear. If you don't list triggers, don't ask for a trigger list on your forms, don't make it known on your website, assume everyone is going to do it that everyone agrees with you, and don't put it where people can see it, then you are responsible for the result and in making it more clear. You can't act like a victim if you haven't set clear boundaries.

Act like an adult and set your boundaries.

BUT WHY would anyone write it/not want a warning as an agent?

Some people like to deal with their triggers in fiction. It's distant, not real, it gives them a sense of control, like a safe word in BDSM. A lot of reading of horror and thrillers in particular are when people are anxious. This is according to Stephen King that greater fear means a spike in his sales. (Interviews, Writing Excuses). You should be paying attention to that... just saying. This is marketing. You are also (unfortunately) part marketer, not only lawyer.

Some people are using it to ask for rights. Buy being clear as a victim of abuse, etc that helps people feel empowerment by *stopping it*.

If people want to stop homophobia, that means they have to talk about homophobia. Taking power back from the oppressors feels good. This is like step 3 of recovering from trauma, though. I've covered previously that after victimhood, you should be aiming for survivor, but the aims of a social justice person are transformation of trauma and that has to be somewhat different and is somewhat opposed to being a victim.

Everyone is healing in a different way and speed than you are. Again, everyone is not you. This is marketing too.

BUT OTHER AGENTS SHOULD DEAL WITH MY POLICY

No, they shouldn't. You are not everyone else. See the UX rule.

How Do I Fix it?

Put on your forms a trigger policy. Try to get other agents to also put on a trigger policy standard.

You can copy-paste the following and cut the irrelevant:

Trigger Warning Policy

I would like you to give a trigger warning: Yes/No.

I would like you to give a trigger warning:

In the query

When I request fulls.

You should not submit if your manuscript has:

You can submit if your manuscript has, but warn me:

Skip trigger warnings for these genres:

[List genres]

Listed nicely and UXed like that with the bold? Yes. Makes it easier to read.

Where should I put it?

There's a fancy UX term for this, but the basics are: If it's important to you, you will LIST it in multiple places. And since writers, even if they wanted to be aren't psychic at grand distances and are submitting to you from places like Australia (because you should know that) and from other countries. They will have no clue what you want if people want different things. So all of these places.

Manuscript Wishlist

Your Profile on your website

Query Manager (You can put it at the top and sometimes with the query part)

Submissions Guideline Page (especially if you don't have Query Manager)

Why not on Twitter?

No one is going to read thousands of tweets and work through your tweets that are going to disappear to find your trigger policy. !@#$ No. Too much time, too much effort, those things disappear, and those are not for permanent information.

If it's Absent...

The user will assume if it is absent in the query manager, especially, there is none, and they can do as they like or guess. Absence is assumed this way.

If you need the long psychological reason why, in UX this is true, then imagine it this way (extended analogies are my jam):

Cashier A is not labeled. Cashier B is not labeled in a store.

You want to check out of the items you've collected in the store and not steal things. You're likely to do as you like. And choose between Cashier A and Cashier B.

Cashier A is labeled now: Returns.

Cashier B is labeled with a cart icon.

You want to check out. You're likely to choose Cashier B.

Therefore, if it's absent on the form, people will do as they like. Basic marketing, psychology and UX. If you want it to be known, you label it.

Mechanically list it. Put it visible everywhere.

Make the form standard on Query Manager and Manuscript Wishlist

Even better yet is to make it standard on agent websites.

Here is the contact for them.

MSWL: https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/contact/

Query Manager: https://querymanager.com/contact.php

Here is what you can write:

Hello,

[Honest reasons you love their website]

I would really like a standard form for trigger warnings. The form would look like something like this:

I would like you to give a trigger warning: Radio buttons: Yes/No.

(Require) If no, then the rest of the form doesn't need to be filled out.

I would like you to give a trigger warning:

If yes require...

Radio buttons for:

In the query

When I request fulls.

You should not submit if your manuscript has: (Optional)

You can submit if your manuscript has, but warn me: (Optional)

Skip trigger warnings for these genres: (Optional)

[List genres]

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

[Name]

BTW, I put programming and UX info into the letter to make it easier on them. Because again empathy and again, I'm HSP, so I can't help it. I want to make implementation as easy as possible.

Please don't abuse the word "Trigger"

BTW, Please do not for the sake of people with C-PTSD and PTSD say something you "dislike" is a "trigger." Dislike should be Content warning. And in that case just list it with your usual "Don't send me this."

Saying something is a trigger because you dislike the trope–please don't abuse the word trigger this way.

Yes, there are low level triggers that don't make sense. I've covered melamine floors before as a trigger for me and institutions. But usually I don't trip out if it's in fiction. But that might be you. Again. Not everyone has the same triggers for fiction, because you are not everyone. Or as Mr. Rogers liked to say loosely You are unique.

While you're at it...

BTW, I also listed other things that agents disagree on. Just do it as a part of your policy to list them.

Conclusion

To me, at this point, if you don't list it and rep a bunch of different genres, I'll choose what I guess is best. If you hit more than one, then yeah, I'm left guessing.

And as an HSP, agents getting really mad at both ends, to the point they are willing to get irritated, I can't take that on. Writers are left confused and in the middle. So instead, just use the form I listed. I mean, it's not that hard to copy-paste.

Your little bit of work up front will help everyone else. Make it a standard that all agents list a trigger warning policy EVERYWHERE it can be visible. We can't guess and no one is going to read all of your Twitter.

Marketing ideas also work towards your clients. You want them to do a certain behavior, then you have to also market yourself well, which means you need to be making your trigger policy known and visible.

[donnerpartyofone]

This morning I left a long comment on a Facebook post by my dead friend's mom where she said she isn't ready to arrange a life celebration yet, and she urges people to keep sharing her daughter's memory. I had been meaning to do this for a month, but I often find Facebook too annoying to use just in UI/UX terms, and I had developed some sort of ridiculous paranoia that people would find out that I might have been the last person to speak to my friend, and that I was standing outside her apartment expecting her to let me in while she was dying. I fantasized that I would have to account for that somehow, to comb through details that I'm sure wouldn't be useful to anyone, and explain why I didn't do more when she strangely didn't come to the door or answer my texts. I still don't know what happened to her.

I reached out to the only acquaintance we shared in common, who was one of her roommates when we were neighbors. He regarded her as his best friend and has been completely shattered by this, especially as it came a year after the death of his ex-girlfriend, who who acted as their kind-of third musketeer. Privately I got a pretty good impression that he drove my dead friend nuts, but I wouldn't know if that was just a part of their "old married couple" dynamic or if they had a truly one-sided relationship. I guess you just don't always get to know how your dearest loved ones really think of you, and in fact maybe you shouldn't. He was the person I had asked to check up on her the day that she died, and he was the only person I could think to ask what happened to her, although I was afraid to. He texted me a detailed download of all the sad things that have happened to him since she died in September, and then he said he would have to wait until his day off to answer my question. I haven't heard from him and I don't think I'm going to. I'm sort of sorry I asked.

Tangentially: It struck me recently that cause of death has become the final frontier of privacy. This is fascinating to me, considering the constant state of overexposure in which most of us live. I've had several experiences in the past few years of someone dying--a casual acquaintance, a friend more than 3 degrees of separation away, a minor celebrity with a cult following in which I participate--and I just had no way of finding out what happened. These have been rare cases in which Google had nothing, not even a rumor; in the present case I was able to unearth the record of an arrest I had never heard about, but nothing about the death. Obviously if you're Michael Jackson or Prince or something then all bets are off, but below that line, if the bereaved don't choose to broadcast the cause or manner of death, then you'll just never find out what those things could have been. I'm thinking right now of another friend of mine who, we all tended to agree, had committed suicide, which was absolutely in-character for her as far as I was concerned...but at the same time, there were compounding factors that made her true level of deliberation ambiguous. I sometimes wish I could talk to someone about it, but I'm afraid it would just hurt her survivors pointlessly to hash it out. In her case, I just have to choose what I want to believe.

Anyway.

My plan that day had been to get a quick haircut before I went to London to record a commentary track for a new release of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, based on my research into the creation of its mythology. This opportunity had come by way of a strange coincidence, and it seemed to justify the grueling self-directed project I had made out of it for the past several years. As I was preparing for my trip, which felt like the climax of a long journey with this subject, I started to feel silly about never having gone to Amityville to see the house. It's not an easy thing to justify; I'd basically be traveling for a total of 5 hours just to stand in front of the house long enough to annoy whoever lives there. But it felt like something I ought to do, as part of my devotion to the topic, so my plan was to see my friend for a quick trim, get on the Long Island Rail Road to do the thing, then return as fast as possible to pack in time to leave the house at 4am the following day. When my friend didn't let me in, only an hour and a half after we'd texted, and I waited around for 25 minutes in the boiling heat in case she had stepped out for coffee or something, before finally coming to terms with the fact that she flaked on me while I was preparing for a stressful international trip, I got all agitated and couldn't bring myself to do the rest of my plan. I've still never seen the Amityville house.

But later, after I found out what had happened, I was glad I didn't go. I imagined the alternative timeline: I went to my friend's apartment for a trim, couldn't make contact with her, went to see the legendary house where six people were brutally murdered and where, according to countless books and movies and podcasts etc, demonic possession took hold--and then I came home to discover that my friend had suddenly and mysteriously died. It would have been impossible for me not to connect these things. Not that I'm so eager to believe in curses; in fact my work has mostly focused on why belief in the supernatural has been easier to achieve than the availability of help for sufferers of mental illness, drug addiction, and domestic violence. But I'm not a hardcore skeptic either, which is exactly why this story has been so meaningful to me. We can't identify true mysteries if we don't train ourselves to analyze real-world events, and the reasons why certain events attract certain monstrous interpretations. For me this kind of training is urgently important, because I'm given to certain strains of magical thinking and I have to be vigilantly aware of what motivates my behavior and convictions. The circumstantial connection between my friend's unexpected death, and my plans for that day, could have proven irresistible to me.

Even now, obviously, I am connecting my plan to visit the cursed house at 112 Ocean Avenue to my friend's abrupt passing. The connection isn't as corrupting as it would be if I had put my feet on Amityville soil that day, but the experience I am currently having tells me exactly how potent this influence could have been at maximum. All my work has been about belief, where beliefs come from, what they do to us personally, even neurologically. I'm haunted by things I used to believe and where those beliefs came from, why I was so vulnerable to them, to the point of complicity in my own destruction. I'm sympathetic to people who believe in things that seem dicey, or in things that offer a seductive reward that outstrips the need to weigh evidence and consequences. But I believe that in many, perhaps most cases, skepticism is just as much of a belief system as faith. Hard evidence always looks that way as long as hard evidence is what you're looking for, an impression that seduces you away from noticing what personal choices you are making in the curation of your worldview. And at the risk of being overly cryptic, I have come to believe that people are only capable of perceiving that which they already believe in, whatever that might consist of. In any case, if you are really paying attention, you begin to notice that you find true proof of things less often than you simply have to prejudicially choose what you believe. These days I have tried to make agnosticism into a discipline, but at the moment I am consciously choosing to believe that my friend did not die in connection with a curse. And I am consciously acknowledging the fact that if that day of my life had gone as originally planned, it could have had a much graver impact on my experience of the death.

[izicodes]

Hi im on my 3rd year of info tech and im just only getting the grasp of it or maybe it's bc we're doing web development this year. i am completely uninterested with the first languages i learned except web design. do i eventually have to go through java and c again when i have to work or before i apply? learning those overwhelmed me so much 😢

First of all, don't do things that overwhelm you to the point it stresses you out. Yes, you might have to do it for your course but you're not interested in it really, so don't do it any further than you have to! There are more fun languages to play around with!

Back to the question: It depends on the job you want to do, to be honest. Some job roles will tell you upfront what languages are a requirement such as 'Java Developer' or 'C# ASP.NET Developer' - you get what I mean, you would probably want to avoid them. But for more vague titles like Software Developer, you need to read into the description of the job or the company to see what their tech stack involves and see what you enjoy and can do matches what they're looking for in a person to join their company!

For example, my job (minus the apprenticeship side) is a Software Developer and it is very JavaScript frameworks, C# and SQL based (with HTML and CSS in the background a bit, of course). So, I didn't and won't need to learn Java or C in order to do my job. Other Software Developer jobs might include Java.

If you are leaning more towards the web design route because that's more interesting, I haven't seen a lot of web design jobs need someone who knows Java or C. Web Design is more UX, UI, visual design, frontend languages and frameworks, SEO, maybe even learning to use programs like Adobe Creative Suite to design the websites. And of course, having 'excellent attention to detail'.

Web Developer is most of those things but add backend web programming languages (such as but not limited to, Python, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, C#, and PHP) and frameworks to the mix. Extra things to know really. Read more about this!!

Basically what I'm trying to say is that:

No, there's a high chance you won't have to learn Java and/or C to get a job only if you're applying for jobs that require it the most

Not all tech jobs require you to know either the two languages

However, that means learning the languages/frameworks that are required if you don't know them already

In Web design/web development, you can get a job in some cases knowing just HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a couple JavaScript frontend and backend frameworks. Go the extra mile and learn backend stuff like MongoDB, SQL or MySQL - if you want.

See what is available in the job market around you, not everywhere is the same

If you see a common pattern, e.g. a lot of jobs require Vue.js or React.js etc, probably learn them and make a couple projects in them so you're ready to apply for those types of jobs in the future (this is what I'm doing)

━━ ⋆

Links to look at for extra reading/research 🌐

[LINK] - What Are the Main Areas of Development for Web Designers to Land Their Dream Job?

[LINK] - What is the difference between a web developer and a web designer?

[LINK] - How to Become a Front-End Developer - Skills, Roles, Salary Explained

[LINK] - What Qualifications Do You Need to Become a Web Developer?

━━ ⋆

I hope this helps! Keep doing research and I hope only the best for you! 🙌🏾🤎

[post-academic]

Stuff I'm noticing about alt-ac career advice:

-It assumes that the inability to get an alt-ac job is because the candidate just simply doesn't know what's out there or doesn't recognize their own strengths. Therefore, a lot of advice is centered around you discovering what kinds of careers you want and how to identify transferrable skills. My problem with this focus is it assumes that you always have a choice in what job you get; it does not account for ebbs and flows in individual markets, job availability by region, etc. It also doesn't account for the fact that simply wanting a job doesn't mean you get it; I can want to get into book publishing all I want, but that doesn't mean an employer is hiring or will let me in if there are no openings.

-It assumes PhDs don't know how to write a resume. The resume tips can be fair advice if the candidate needs them, but the problem is that often, the best written resume doesn't get the job.

If I had to give actual advice (based on my own experience), it would be:

-Sometimes you just have to take jobs you don't like and learn to detach. Some people find very fulfilling alt-ac careers; some people take jobs because the money is good. It's ok if you find a job and you're not filled with enthusiasm about it.

-Alt-ac career advice makes things like UX research and project management sound akin to graduate work. In reality, alt-ac careers may make use of your skills, but they are NOT the same as graduate work. Furthermore, these sites will make alt-ac careers sound emotionally fulfilling. The truth is that some people will love project management and some people will absolutely hate it. A particular alt-ac job is not one-size-fits-all for all former PhDs.

-All sectors have the capacity to be toxic. Academia is not uniquely toxic and you're not morally superior for leaving academia.

-The single best way to get into a career field you like is to network. Sometimes, a resume will stand out and get your foot in the door, but most companies will hire someone on recommendation over a well-qualified cold application.

-Don't trust sites that make it seem like oversaturated markets like library science, museum studies, etc are viable options. These are just as bad as the academic job market, so if you try your hand at them, you need to go in fully aware.

-The bias against humanities degrees is real. Even if you have a lot of transferable skills, some employers will still pass you over if they don't value your major. You can try to get around this by showcasing your job experiences and/or any volunteer work, putting your education towards the end of your resume.

-Some panel speakers have said that in order to get a job, you just need to apply, even if you don't meet 100% of the qualifications. This can work, but if the company gets 200 applications, they're going to go with people who will most likely fit what they want. You're basically rolling the dice and seeing what happens. Again, it can work. But most people won't sift through 200 applications and will instead narrow the pool by comparing against the job ad.

[siriuslysatorusimping]

I was tagged 😃

So I have a bachelors and masters in applied psych and now am working towards a PhD in neuroscience :) I love love love it with every fiber of my being and I must be a masochist bc I LOVE the academic hazing that is grad school. I’m probably gonna end up teaching and doing research bc I don’t wanna stop being a student. How do Rinko and Gojo feel about grading btw? Hate it. Worst thing ever.

My focus is on brain imaging and stress in a special population of kids who are highly predisposed to developing schizophrenia, but I had to have a lot of training in psychopharmacology and general cognitive and behavioral science to begin with which is why I am so ready to nerd tf out with Rinko studying psych 😍

YOU ARE SO FUCKING SMART. HOLY SHIT. THAT IS SO FUCKING COOL.

Kiko ranted like a dumbass so hi, rest below the cut 🫠

I have a BA and MA in Technical Writing & Rhetoric with a minor in English Literature. HOWEVER. My grad research focus was actually user experience, which was born from human-computer interaction (a psychology major at my old school). Our department had the best user experience professor, so we had a lot of the HCI PhDs in our UX classes. I always loved talking to them and picking their brains. Part of me wishes I had gotten my PhD in HCI or a related field, but I needed out of academia. I fucking hated it. It was also in the height of COVID, which just destroyed all of my motivation for life itself lol

AS FOR GRADING: I FUCKING HATED IT, TOO.

listen.

when i was in grad school, i had 50+ papers to grade every couple of weeks and we had to have them graded within a certain time period or administration CAME FOR US AND IT WAS TERRIFYING.

But one time I left all 50 until the day before I was put on the hit list and I wanted to die. So I chugged two redbulls and proceeded to go on a grading marathon of like, 10 hours.

This AU is feeding my tiny desire to go back to school to keep me from making the giant financial mistake of trying to get my PhD when I know I'll hate academia just as much as I did last time.

I think Rinko will actually semi-enjoy grading, because she's the type who will be so intrigued to see how her students think.

Gojo hates it. But he also doesn't trust anyone else to do it right. Lucky for him, most of his exams are multiple-choice. But since it's physics they have to show their work, and he hates grading that shit because it becomes so obvious that they don't fucking know what they're doing.

(maybe one of the installments will be a cute, fluffy lil grading session where they're just keeping each other company 🥺)

[natureintheory]

Tried Carrd.co for a portfolio site:

PROS:

Flexibility, options

Content types (I need captions, video, embedding, etc. The $20/year tier has this — that's a fair price)

Relatively easy, sort of. (see cons)

CONS:

Shadier Terms of Use than ArtStation's now (see below) → Why I was looking for a substitute in the first place. It doesn't make sense to jump to worse ToS.

Back-end UX: → The way it handles pages as "Sections" using #Control — this will get ugly, FAST. Containers can't be nested. → Again compared to ArtStation's site builder, it's more of a pain. Not worth the trouble or resources: Nowadays people hardly visit personal sites. Even as an Art Director I vastly prefer templates when looking at portfolios — easy to use, functional.

While I was working on Carrd, it was suddenly booted offline for a "violation". → That's what prompted me to look closer at their Terms: I hadn't violated anything. Support responded fast, said it was a mistake and put it back. But just like when Tumblr randomly deleted my page, this doesn't give me confidence in the service.

Carrd's terms for user content:

I'm no stranger to contracts. Yes most of this is probably for advertising. Still, these are comparatively unclear and even overzealous:

carrd.co/docs/general/terms → search: (D) By submitting User Content

"(D) By submitting User Content to us... you automatically grant, or represent or warrant that the owner has expressly granted, to us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, fully sublicensable, and transferable right and license to use, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works ... and publish the User Content (in whole or in part) as we, in our sole discretion, deem appropriate including, without limitation, ... We may exercise this grant in any format, media or technology now known or later developed ...

Compare to Tumblr and even ArtStation:

tumblr.com/policy/en/terms-of-service → search: User Content License to Tumblr

artstation.com/tos → search: 17. License regarding Your Content

—

Other options?

Criteria (see also: Pros and Cons above)

Free / cheap. → Carrd's Pro is $20/year. ArtStation was ~$80/year for me. → Not interested in predatory & expensive monthly subs.

Easy, simple, functional site-builder with templates. → I can build my own, but these days I'm not looking for web/visual design work. No need to spend the time.

Flexibility & options; various content types (images, long captions with links, video, embed code).

Good ToS, no AI, no NFT promotion, etc.

Standalone, not a social platform, → E.g.: https://natureintheory.artstation.com/ (yes) vs https://www.artstation.com/natureintheory (no) → NOT talking about hosting (owning your URL).

Usable now / within the year.

So,

NO:

Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, etc. → Expensive, and still limiting despite.

Build-your-own → Not worth the effort for multiple reasons described above.

Adobe/Behance → Support AI, NFTs & generally extortionate subscriptions.

Dribbble → Login lock makes it annoying for Art Directors (me) to access; image quality was terrible when I tried it for my own work.

Tumblr → Mostly because it's so... temperamental. See above.

Wordpress.com → See update.

MAYBE:

Wordpress.org / free tier → Maybe a pain.

Semplice for Wordpress → $120 but perpetual. Maybe a pain.

Building using Notion? → Heard some people are doing this. Probably easier than other from-scratch options, but still. Too much pain.

Weebly → I could live with the Free tier branding & URL. Not sure if the content features are enough, though: video & embeds?

????

Inkblot → Looks promising but very new & scrappy. No standalone site-builder currently.

Cara.app → Same as above.

—

Briefly... spending resources (time, $) on this was not in my plans this year. There's a ton else to worry about, between freelance work and shitty life events. So I don't know. I'm going to keep using ArtStation until my sub expires and researching the options. Who knows what new problems (or solutions) we'll have in a few months?

[bonvoyagenoona]

Hey Cheryl you're like an older sister to me so I wanna ask you a question: what to do when you feel lost in life and you feel like you don't know yourself? Like I know the answer is inside me and I wanna get to know myself but I don't know where to start? I'm 23 btw. Thank you for existing ❤

Aw, hey friend! Thank YOU for existing! 💜 And thanks for sharing this message! 

I have been thinking about my response to this for weeks, and I really want to do right by you. And I want to express that though I operate out of many different frameworks for several areas of my life (e.g., psychological theory frameworks, UX frameworks, writing frameworks, etc.), I feel that all we can really do with existential questions like these is share our own subjective, personal takes.

So here is mine. And it might sound a little funny, but I truly believe it. 

Be lost.

It touches my heart that you consider me to be a sisterly figure to you. But just because I’m 34 doesn’t mean I know more about life. This is something my own friends and mentors have shared with me: age does not equate to answers, just time. I’ve just had more instances of the things that we all feel, so they feel more comfortable. Being lost no longer feels like a stranger just barged in and messed everything up. Being lost now feels like greeting an old friend that has come to stay for a little while.

I love being lost. I love being lost in thought, in the crowd, in the moment. Looking back, the moments I have felt lost have been the most experimental and rewarding moments of my life. I tried new things, revisited old things, grasped at straws, held onto ledges. Being lost leads to revelations that then only lead to more questions. And this will keep happening for the rest of your life.

Sounds terrifying, I know.

But let me maybe put some context around these moments to try to describe the joy I feel in being lost.

During my grad school days, I would find myself sitting in my office, staring at my computer screen, trying desperately to understand some overly-complicated, completely inaccessible journal article so that I could apply its findings to my research. And then I would completely disappear into a fog of confusion. The more I tried to understand, the less I actually understood, and I would start spiraling into self-doubt. Why was I even there? Why was I trying so hard? What’s going to happen to me if I don’t figure this out? Obviously, no one was going to be able to answer these questions for me. So, I had no choice but to feel lost. I’d put the article away, pack up for the day, and head home. I’d try to do something else for a while. A hobby, or an errand, or a simple walk outside. Something similarly aimless. Oftentimes, that’s when the article’s findings would click. In other instances, I might strike up a conversation with a lab mate. Maybe I’d mention the article, maybe not. But those conversations helped me make sense of something, and it’s almost as if the act of making sense of something helped me unlock the path to making sense of whatever ideas I was trying to bring together for my work.

When I think about my passions, like writing, or my career, I often feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. Sure, I have my tried and true processes that help me create and lead. But there’s always a bit of imposter syndrome that creeps in. What am I really doing? Am I doing “enough”? Am I really doing this for Me? How long until everyone finds out I’m a fraud? I used to shove these thoughts down, hide them somewhere and hope they disappear. But being thrust into a manager position forced me to talk about these feelings with my team, because -- guess what -- literally everyone feels the same way. I’d sit in 1:1s with my amazing, stellar, impressive team and hear doubt after doubt. At first, I’d try to reassure them by sharing facts supporting how awesome they were. And that’s helpful to a degree. But once I started opening up about my own concerns, and how so much is out of our control when it comes to our work, they seemed to feel at ease. It’s as if all of us admitting we weren’t sure what we were doing individually helped us understand how we are strong as a team. And if we’re strong as a team, then we couldn’t possibly be as terrible individuals as we thought. The same has happened in our BTS fanfic community. Anytime I have felt unsure about my passion, I have gone back to the extremely lovely comments and messages that so many people have thankfully shared with me. They all reinforce that same message. That others have felt what I have felt. That others dream of the same things I dream of. And how wonderful it is that we can all connect through them. 

And then, there’s dating. I still don’t even really know what I want out of the experience. Sometimes I wonder what the point is. Do I want a real partner, or just validation? Am I doing this because I’m searching for something, or just because I’m lonely? And if I don’t know what I want out of the experience, how do I even really know when I’m connecting with someone? Whenever I feel that way, I bring it back to what’s right in front of me: the next message, from a real person, who seems to be interested in something. Maybe they strike up the conversation, or maybe I did. Maybe the conversation was awful, or brilliant. Maybe it led to something else, maybe not. And just by going for it, whether it’s sending an emoji, or going on a 7-hour coffee date, I learn something. I learn something about a fellow human, or I learn something about myself. 

When I think about all of this as a researcher, I notice that it’s kind of a scope creep problem. These existential questions are so BIG, and it can feel uncomfortable when we can’t answer questions, so we worry that we’re doing something wrong or failing in some way. In all 3 of these instances, I have noticed that I re-focused my energy onto some small, relatively controllable thing. It’s easier to think about one article, one meeting, or one conversation at a time, trusting that it will all make sense again at some point.

Being lost doesn’t mean you lack intentionality.

Being comfortable with being lost simply helps you bide time until the answers you seek inevitably show themselves.

You said it yourself: the answers are within you. You already have them! So there is no schedule, no rush, for you to explain and apply them. Keep doing your thing, and let them cook. Let them grow deeper, and richer. Let them fully form. And be open to what form they eventually take. 

UPDATE: There’s even a cognitive neuroscientific underpinning here! There are many networks within our brains that structure and control cognition. One that often gets missed is the default mode network, a series of structures that are involved in internal, reflective processing. It is deactivated when we are working toward goal-oriented tasks, and activated during states of flow. It is involved, for example, in mind-wandering, or that crucial empty space that is needed for creativity. DMN activity also increases as we age; more time spent in that default mode is an indicator of someone who is in older age. And this can also explain why as we age, we become more comfortable with this undefined space, this mind-wandering that eventually leads us to some new destination that we might never have planned to visit.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also point out how important it is to connect with people. Reach out to your loved ones, friends, family, etc. And if you aren’t able to do that, I heavily advocate for therapy. It’s just helpful to have someone to bounce your ideas off of while you are lost so that you can get some perspective. And this is why I’m generally thrilled when people share their thoughts with me, and why I’m particularly happy that you felt comfortable sharing this BIG question with me!

The bigger picture will become clearer, and fuzzier, and clearer, and fuzzier, like looking across a campfire, or when the optometrist asks you “1″ or “2″. That’s just life. So be kind to yourself. Be patient with yourself. Focus on the things that are right in front of you. 

Celebrate it all. And celebrate yourself. 

You’re an amazing person, someone who, when faced with this BIG question, chose to connect rather than hide. 

Take that fearlessness and find the joy in being lost. 

We’re all right there with you. 💜

[dodoxcx]

Are you in search of an exceptional UI/UX designer who can bring your wildest design dreams to life? Look no further! I'm here to sprinkle some creative magic on your projects and make them shine brighter than a disco ball at a party!

💼 Who am I?

I'm not just your ordinary UI/UX designer – I'm a unicorn with a paintbrush! Well, maybe not literally, but I do have a magical touch when it comes to creating captivating user experiences. With years of experience under my belt, I've helped countless clients turn their visions into reality.

🌈 What can I do for you?

- Craft stunning and intuitive user interfaces that will make your users go "Wow!"

- Conduct comprehensive user research and create user personas to ensure we're on the right track.

- Develop wireframes, prototypes, and interactive mockups that will make you say, "That's exactly what I was thinking!"

- Collaborate with developers to ensure smooth and seamless implementation.

- Constantly stay updated with the latest design trends and technologies to keep your project ahead of the game.

💡 Why should you choose me?

Not only will I bring top-notch design skills and a fresh perspective to your project, but I'm also an absolute joy to work with. Together, we'll create a fun, creative, and collaborative environment where ideas can flow freely like a waterfall of inspiration. Plus, I promise to add a sprinkle of humor to keep things light-hearted and enjoyable!

🎉 Let's make some magic!

If you want to take your UI/UX design to the next level, let's connect! Drop me a message, and let's start turning your dreams into a beautiful reality. I can't wait to be part of your exciting journey!

P.S. Don't forget to bring your sense of adventure and a big dose of imagination – we're about to embark on an unforgettable design journey together! 🚀💫

𝐌𝐘 𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐒:

• Web design (UX/UI);

• Mobile design (UX/UI);

• Proposing an art direction;

• Graphic design;

• User flow creation;

• Wireframing;

• Creating clickable prototypes (Figma);

• UX strategy;

• Logo creation;

• Branding / corporate Identity creation;

• Style & colour guideline creation;

• Landing page design;

• Web application/SaaS product design;

• Dashboard design;

• Icon design;

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐋𝐒 𝐈 𝐔𝐒𝐄:

• Figma

• Adobe creative suite

•Sketch

• Framer

• WordPress

• Webflow

• Wix

[iamyelling]

i started writing this in the comments on a @wip ask, regarding the new image and video viewer on mobile, but it got too long and i wanted to put a little more thought into it, so i'm just posting it here.

i hope yall are listening to feedback. this is genuine feedback that features are not intuitive and unpleasant, it's really frustrating to always hear that we're just cranky longtime users and are just opposed to ~big scary change~ when we bring up very reasonable issues. it often feels like tumblr is "fixing what aint broke" in a misguided attempt to lure in mythical new users that don't exist. it feels like you guys are operating on a lot of assumptions (that feel incorrect to me at least and certainly a lot of other people as well). if it’s so popular to make these changes, why not present the data and user research to back up the UX and UI changes? y’all keep repeating that you need tumblr to be more popular and grow its userbase - but do these changes ACTUALLY help with that? It feels to me like the logic is going:

we need to stay in business —> need to make money —> we need growth either to make money or to show investors we are worth investing in —> we don’t get enough new users or we don’t retain new users —> this is because new users are confused by tumblr —> making tumblr more familiar and standard and providing popular features would solve that —> try to emulate other popular products —> longtime users express concerns and pushback and give genuine heartfelt feedback because they want tumblr to succeed —> “longtime users are just cranky because they don’t like change”. 

but i would suggest interrogating several of these points in the line of logic and consider other possibilities. I also strongly suggest doing actual research to answer these. is the issue attracting new users or retaining them when they join? what are the industry expectations for new user retention? what differentiates tumblr as a platform/site/app/social media? what do existing users value? what do new users value? what do these groups dislike? what pain points do new users face when onboarding? if it is unfamiliarity, overwhelm, confusion, what are several ways of solving that, while still valuing the mission of tumblr and differentiating it from competitors? what are the competitors to tumblr? what are the mistakes and stumbles that tumblr and its competitors have made over the years - what lessons can be learned? question assumptions around what is considered “standard”. question what is considered “familiar” and why it is familiar? did it work on that competitor? why did it work there? was it not successful, and why did it not work? what was popular or unpopular? would it make sense on tumblr, in tumblr’s context and ecosystem? consider what the function of friction is in a user experience, what does it provide? what actually is friction and how is it defined? when is it appropriate and when is it inappropriate in the user experience?

there seems to be a philosophical conflict here, of tumblr leadership seeking to accommodate the lowest common denominator, while the user base is seeking tumblr to be differentiated and unique and a breath of fresh air and a place for creatives and art and communities to thrive. and different definitions of what is "good" or what is genuinely a "bad" user experience.

i was thinking last night about the difference in the way i see my tumblr community talking about and feeling about two different tumblr problems: the new image and video viewer on mobile, and the new community labels and the inaccurate and discriminatory auto-flagging or manual-flagging of posts by POC, LGBTQ+ and other marginalized users. I see people up in arms about the downgraded experience on the mobile viewer, messaging staff and seeking explanations and the feature to be reverted or at least fixed. I see people pointing out the precise ways the user experience has gotten worse in this feature (no longer able to double-tap to zoom in, now it likes, unable to swipe, buggy or weird pinch-to-zoom behaviors, the gesture of swiping up to exit the viewer being replaced with an endless scroll of unrelated posts and videos akin to other popular video platforms such as tiktok or instagram). versus the mis-flagging, which i see people making posts about and laughing with a "because what else can you do" attitude, and generally see as inevitably harmful discrimination. of course i am sure there are people contacting staff about it but it tends to be addressed on a post-by-post basis without a general community like movement or activism. no that i am saying it is fine, it most certainly is not acceptable and we should expect and demand better. but for some reason this feels notable to me? something to reflect on.

@wip @staff @changes @cyle

[jack-valentine]

"They never fucking fix anything!" and "They changed everything and it sucks!" in the same goddamn breath. Day after day.

I have forced dev teams to implement features requested by research participants only for those same people to say 'oh god this sucks why did you do this?' These were people who sat in front of prototypes that looked exactly like what they were now using and I'm highly trained in spotting liars.

And then two months later...oh, turns out they're really happy with the new layout!

Because on average it takes you 5-6 weeks to adapt to structural layouts because you don't read and rely on visual proximity to do everything. UI disruptions on this level are not someone's whim - they're almost always based on lots of research and tested repeatedly. UX researchers and designers fight like hell for what you ask for (sometimes we lose, sometimes we're wrong, but that's why we do research) and you hate everything. Absolutely every major change. But this is the only way forward. We can't create anything new if we're locked into old interaction patterns. (Yes, deliberate enshitification is a thing but for most apps, it's people trying to make them better.)

I am NOT saying this change is good - I can't, I've barely touched it myself - but I'm gonna give it a shot. I'm so tired execs demand I "justify my existence" when I tell them what you told me and then you hate your own choices.

the new discord update really sucks huh

[digizenzee]

Maximize Your Success with a Web Design Company

In the digital age, your website is your storefront. Whether you're a small business owner, a marketing manager, or a startup, collaborating with a web design company can significantly impact your online presence. But how do you ensure you get the best results from this partnership? This post will guide you through practical tips and strategies to make the most of your collaboration with a web design company, with a special focus on working with outfits like Digitechniques, a leading web design company in India.

Understanding Your Needs and Goals

Before approaching a web design company, it's crucial to have a clear understanding of your business needs and goals. What do you want your website to achieve? Are you looking to increase sales, generate leads, or improve brand visibility? Clearly defined goals will provide a roadmap for both you and the design team.

Researching Potential Web Design Companies

When choosing a web design company, don't settle for the first option you find. Conduct thorough research to identify firms with a strong portfolio and positive client testimonials. Look for companies like Digitechniques that have experience in your industry and understand your target audience.

Setting a Realistic Budget

Establishing a budget is a critical step in the web design process. While it's tempting to go for the cheapest option, remember that quality design requires investment. Discuss your budget openly with your chosen company to ensure there are no hidden costs down the line.

Communicating Your Vision

Effective communication is the foundation of a successful web design project. Share your vision, including color schemes, layout preferences, and particular functionalities. The more detailed you are, the easier it will be for the design team to bring your vision to life.

Establishing Clear Milestones

Setting clear milestones helps track progress and ensures that the project stays on schedule. Agree on key deliverables and deadlines upfront. This approach fosters accountability and keeps everyone aligned.

Providing Constructive Feedback

Your feedback is invaluable in refining the design. Be specific in your comments and avoid vague statements like "I don't like it." Instead, explain what works and what doesn't, providing examples when possible. This approach ensures that your feedback is actionable.

Trusting the Expertise of Your Design Team

While it's essential to communicate your needs, it's equally important to trust the expertise of your design team. Companies like Digitechniques have years of experience and a deep understanding of what works in web design. Trust their recommendations and be open to new ideas.

Focusing on User Experience (UX)

A visually appealing website is important, but user experience is paramount. Ensure that your web design company prioritizes UX, creating a site that is intuitive, easy to navigate, and accessible to all users.

Optimizing for SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical aspect of web design. Work with your design team to ensure that your site is optimized for keywords like web design company India and Digitechniques. This will improve your search engine rankings and drive organic traffic to your site.

Ensuring Mobile Responsiveness

With a significant portion of web traffic coming from mobile devices, a mobile-responsive design is non-negotiable. Confirm that your web design company can deliver a site that functions seamlessly across all devices.

Integrating Analytics

Analytics tools are crucial for measuring the success of your website. Ensure that your site has integrated analytics to track visitor behavior, conversion rates, and other key metrics. This data will inform future improvements and marketing strategies.

Planning for Future Updates

Web design is not a one-time task; it requires ongoing updates and maintenance. Discuss a plan for future updates with your web design company to ensure that your site remains current and functional.

Building a Strong Relationship

A successful web design project is built on a strong, collaborative relationship. Foster open communication, mutual respect and a willingness to work together to achieve common goals.

[creativemorningsvancouver]

COMMUNITY PROFILE

“Creativity isn't just when you're writing poetry, it's about how you live your life.”

Meet Jai, the epitome of a “multi-pie guy”. His full life is a tapestry deeply woven with creativity, innovation, and community. A few of Jai’s pursuits span the realms of poetry, music, co-housing, writing, and cooking. His mind is constantly innovating and creativity is a part of his daily life. He also finds solace in slowing down to create space to fully savour his creative process. 

As a co-cordinator and instructor at the Capilano University, IDEA School of Design, he co-developed the Interaction Design program. Jai works in user experience (UX) research to help people and organizations discover how their products and services interact with people. People and technology are at the heart of his career. 

Jai’s heart also beats for service - he is a respite foster care parent and a board member with Brightside Community Housing as well as a volunteer at MOSAIC, assisting newcomers to Canada find job opportunities. In every facet of his life, Jai stays true to his values whether that be writing music or helping a family acclimate to a new country, he believes that life is an act of creativity. 

How does your creativity flow shift between all your different projects? 

“My values of collaboration, convening and creativity are at the center of everything. I’ve always worked in collaboration whether as a composer writing music for dance and theatre, creative writing, or in the work I do. And convening, I love bringing people together. I often have people for dinner and organize salons to help make sense of the world. It is bridging like-minded people together. Creativity is the last pillar of that for me and it is imbued in everything that I do. Creativity isn't just when you're writing poetry, it's about how you live your life.”

How do you personally define creativity? 

“Maybe it’s an approach to the world. Creativity is a mindset where you see everything as endless opportunities for creation and imagination. I think our culture doesn’t encourage people to play like when we were young. Children are always curious, sharing, understanding, trying things out, and playing. And somewhere along the line, we get told that we have to be good at something for it to be good. You don't. Fail creatively!”

So, how do you manage to not lose that sense of play and wonder? 

“I’m pretty silly, always tweaking the nose of whatever I’m doing.  And maybe it's a mindset. It’s the way I see the world. I see the world in abundance of endless opportunity. Lately, I've been feeling overwhelmed with all the terrible things happening in the world. I think one of the things that we can do is be creative and bring something beautiful into the world. Being creative is making a choice to be optimistic.”

Can you tell me about a time you used your creativity to overcome adversity? 

“The pandemic was a hard time for everyone. My friend and I created a project called the Power of Portrait, and we put out a call to everyone to submit a photo and a story of how they were dealing with COVID-19. When all the businesses were boarded up downtown, we had this huge display of all the portraits that linked to their stories on the website. We wanted to create something that might capture the hearts and minds of people and inspire togetherness despite being a part. It was a beautiful display of collective creativity.”

What advice do you have for someone afraid to express their creative voice? 

“First off, if people are feeling like they are not creative, ask yourself, “Where is that coming from?”. And be confident that you have something to say, something to add to this world. And then perhaps take a second to slow down and take a look at what you’re already doing. Reframe your thinking of what is creative. Whether that's cooking, arranging the pillows on your bed, or the way you dress; these are all creative acts.”