#performance metrics experience

[maxlearnmicrolearningplatform]

Maximizing Training Impact: 5 Benefits of Implementing MaxLearn in Your Training Programs

In the ever-evolving landscape of corporate training and development, the need for effective, data-driven learning solutions is more critical than ever. MaxLearn, a cutting-edge learning management system, offers a comprehensive suite of features designed to enhance training programs and deliver measurable results. By integrating MaxLearn into your training initiatives, you can leverage its powerful analytics capabilities to gain valuable insights, making your learning initiatives both qualitative and numbers-driven. Here are five key benefits of implementing MaxLearn in your training programs.

1. Enhanced Learner Engagement

Engaging learners is a significant challenge in any training program. Traditional training methods often struggle to capture and maintain the attention of participants, leading to decreased retention and effectiveness. MaxLearn addresses this challenge through a variety of innovative features that keep learners engaged and motivated.

Interactive Content

MaxLearn supports the creation of interactive content, such as videos, simulations, quizzes, and gamified elements. These features transform passive learning into an active experience, encouraging learners to participate and engage with the material. Interactive content not only makes learning more enjoyable but also enhances retention by involving multiple senses and cognitive processes.

Personalized Learning Paths

One of the standout features of MaxLearn is its ability to create personalized learning paths for each user. By analyzing individual performance data, MaxLearn tailors the training experience to meet the specific needs and preferences of each learner. This personalized approach ensures that learners receive the right content at the right time, enhancing their engagement and motivation.

2. Improved Learning Outcomes

The ultimate goal of any training program is to achieve positive learning outcomes. MaxLearn’s advanced features are designed to ensure that learners not only complete their training but also retain and apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired.

Adaptive Learning

MaxLearn’s adaptive learning technology adjusts the training content based on the learner’s progress and performance. If a learner struggles with a particular concept, MaxLearn provides additional resources and practice opportunities to reinforce understanding. Conversely, if a learner demonstrates mastery of a topic, they can progress more quickly through the material. This adaptive approach maximizes learning efficiency and effectiveness.

Real-Time Feedback

Immediate feedback is crucial for effective learning. MaxLearn provides real-time feedback on quizzes and assessments, allowing learners to understand their mistakes and correct them promptly. This continuous feedback loop helps reinforce learning and ensures that misconceptions are addressed before they become ingrained.

3. Comprehensive Analytics and Reporting

One of the most powerful features of MaxLearn is its robust analytics capabilities. These tools provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your training programs, allowing you to make data-driven decisions to optimize learning outcomes.

Detailed Performance Metrics

MaxLearn tracks a wide range of performance metrics, including quiz scores, completion rates, time spent on modules, and more. These detailed metrics provide a comprehensive view of how learners are progressing through the training material. By analyzing this data, you can identify patterns and trends, pinpoint areas where learners are struggling, and adjust the training content accordingly.

Customizable Reports

MaxLearn offers customizable reporting options that allow you to generate reports tailored to your specific needs. Whether you need a high-level overview of program effectiveness or detailed insights into individual learner performance, MaxLearn’s reporting tools can provide the information you need. These reports can be shared with stakeholders to demonstrate the impact of your training initiatives and justify further investment.

4. Streamlined Training Management

Managing a training program can be a complex and time-consuming task. MaxLearn simplifies this process with its intuitive interface and comprehensive management tools, allowing you to focus on delivering high-quality training rather than getting bogged down in administrative tasks.

User-Friendly Interface

MaxLearn’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to create, manage, and deliver training content. The platform’s drag-and-drop functionality allows you to build training modules quickly and efficiently, without the need for extensive technical expertise. Additionally, MaxLearn’s intuitive navigation ensures that both trainers and learners can easily access the features and resources they need.

Automated Administration

MaxLearn automates many administrative tasks, such as enrollment, progress tracking, and certification. These automated processes save time and reduce the risk of errors, ensuring that your training program runs smoothly. Additionally, automated reminders and notifications help keep learners on track, improving completion rates and overall program success.

5. Scalability and Flexibility

As organizations grow and evolve, their training needs change. MaxLearn’s scalable and flexible platform can adapt to meet these changing needs, ensuring that your training program remains effective and relevant.

Scalable Solutions

Whether you’re training a small team or a large organization, MaxLearn’s scalable solutions can accommodate your needs. The platform can handle a large number of users and a wide variety of training content, making it suitable for organizations of all sizes. Additionally, MaxLearn’s cloud-based infrastructure ensures that the platform can grow with your organization, providing reliable performance and security.

Customizable Content

MaxLearn’s flexibility extends to its content creation capabilities. The platform supports a wide range of content formats, including text, video, audio, and interactive elements. This flexibility allows you to create training modules that are tailored to the specific needs of your organization and its learners. Additionally, MaxLearn’s content management tools make it easy to update and revise training materials, ensuring that your program stays current with industry trends and best practices.

Leveraging MaxLearn’s Analytics for Data-Driven Decisions

The analytics capabilities of MaxLearn are a game-changer for organizations looking to make their training programs more effective and data-driven. By leveraging these tools, you can gain valuable insights that help you optimize your training initiatives and achieve better learning outcomes.

Identifying Learning Gaps

MaxLearn’s analytics tools can help you identify learning gaps by analyzing performance data across different modules and topics. By pinpointing areas where learners are struggling, you can focus your efforts on improving those aspects of the training program. This targeted approach ensures that your training resources are used effectively and that learners receive the support they need to succeed.

Measuring Training Effectiveness

One of the key benefits of MaxLearn’s analytics capabilities is the ability to measure the effectiveness of your training programs. By tracking metrics such as completion rates, assessment scores, and learner feedback, you can assess how well your training initiatives are meeting their objectives. This data-driven approach allows you to make informed decisions about how to improve your training programs and achieve better results.

Enhancing Learner Experience

MaxLearn’s analytics tools also provide insights into the learner experience. By analyzing data on learner engagement, satisfaction, and progress, you can identify opportunities to enhance the training experience. For example, if learners consistently rate certain modules as difficult or unengaging, you can revise the content to make it more accessible and interesting. By continuously improving the learner experience, you can increase engagement, retention, and overall program success.

Conclusion

Implementing MaxLearn in your training programs offers numerous benefits, from enhanced learner engagement and improved learning outcomes to comprehensive analytics and streamlined management. By leveraging MaxLearn’s powerful features and analytics capabilities, you can create a training program that is both qualitative and numbers-driven, ensuring that your learners receive the best possible training experience. Whether you’re looking to improve the effectiveness of your current training initiatives or develop new programs, MaxLearn provides the tools and insights you need to succeed in today’s competitive learning environment.

[isubhamdas]

Agile SEO to Streamline Conversions

Agile SEO: This article explores how to implement agile strategies to enhance your online presence, improve visibility, and drive conversions. Continue reading for expert insights and actionable tips. Embracing Agility for Evolving SEO LandscapeAgile Principles to Streamline Your SEO WorkflowAdapting Agile SEO For Cross-Functional TeamsData-Driven Decisions in Agile SEOExpert Tip: Utilize Agile…

[letslearnanything]

Attention tech enthusiasts and reviewers! 🎓 Dive into our ultimate laptop review guide and master the nuances of laptop performance, design, and user experience. Whether you're a seasoned tech blogger or just passionate about gadgets, "Crafting the Perfect Review for Laptop Performance and Design" will enhance your expertise. Learn to evaluate performance metrics, assess build quality, and articulate your insights in a way that engages and informs. Elevate your reviews from good to great and help others make informed decisions. Explore now and become the go-to source for laptop advice! #LaptopReviewGuide

[jamesn903]

Mastery Series: Elevate Your HR Service Delivery with ServiceNow Knowledge Management

Discover the power of ServiceNow HRSD Knowledge Management with this comprehensive guide. Learn how to streamline HR processes, enhance employee experience, and ensure compliance through documentation, SOPs, governance, and practical implementation tips.

Building a Strong Foundation: Essential Prework for ServiceNow HRSD Knowledge Management Before you begin implementing ServiceNow HRSD Knowledge Management, it’s advisable to review the resources provided by ServiceNow to ensure a solid foundation for success. Here’s a review of the format and content of the resources mentioned: 1. Getting Started with Knowledge Management This resource is a…

[vertagedialer]

[flimsy-roost]

I realized the other day that the reason I didn't watch much TV as a teenager (and why I'm only now catching up on late aughts/early teens media that I missed), is because I literally didn't understand how to use our TV. My parents got a new system, and it had three remotes with a Venn diagram of functions. If someone left the TV on an unfamiliar mode, I didn't know how to get back to where I wanted to be, so I just stopped watching TV on my own altogether.

I explained all this to my therapist, because I didn't know if this was more related to my then-unnoticed autism, or to my relationship with my parents at the time (we had issues less/unrelated to neurodivergency). She told me something interesting.

In children's autism assessments, a common test is to give them a straightforward task that they cannot reasonably perform, like opening an overtight jar. The "real" test is to see, when they realize that they cannot do it on their own, if they approach a caregiver for help. Children that do not seek help are more likely to be autistic than those that do.

This aligns with the compulsory independence I've noticed to be common in autistic adults, particularly articulated by those with lower support needs and/or who were evaluated later in life. It just genuinely does not occur to us to ask for help, to the point that we abandon many tasks that we could easily perform with minor assistance. I had assumed it was due to a shared common social trauma (ie bad experiences with asking for help in the past), but the fact that this trait is a childhood test metric hints at something deeper.

My therapist told me that the extremely pathologizing main theory is that this has something to do with theory of mind, that is doesn't occur to us that other people may have skills that we do not. I can't speak for my early childhood self, or for all autistic people, but I don't buy this. Even if I'm aware that someone else has knowledge that I do not (as with my parents understanding of our TV), asking for help still doesn't present itself as an option. Why?

My best guess, using only myself as a model, is due to the static wall of a communication barrier. I struggle a lot to make myself understood, to articulate the thing in my brain well enough that it will appear identically (or at least close enough) in somebody else's brain. I need to be actively aware of myself and my audience. I need to know the correct words, the correct sentence structure, and a close-enough tone, cadence, and body language. I need draft scripts to react to possible responses, because if I get caught too off guard, I may need several minutes to construct an appropriate response. In simple day-to-day interactions, I can get by okay. In a few very specific situations, I can excel. When given the opportunity, I can write more clearly than I am ever capable of speaking.

When I'm in a situation where I need help, I don't have many of my components of communication. I don't always know what my audience knows. I don't have sufficient vocabulary to explain what I need. I don't know what information is relevant to convey, and the order in which I should convey it. I don't often understand the degree of help I need, so I can come across inappropriately urgent or overly relaxed. I have no ability to preplan scripts because I don't even know the basic plot of the situation.

I can stumble though with one or two deficiencies, but if I'm missing too much, me and the potential helper become mutually unintelligible. I have learned the limits of what I can expect from myself, and it is conceptualized as a real and physical barrier. I am not a runner, so running a 5k tomorrow does not present itself as an option to me. In the same way, if I have subconscious knowledge that an interaction is beyond my capability, it does not present itself as an option to me. It's the minimum communication requirements that prevent me from asking for help, not anything to do with the concept of help itself.

Maybe. This is the theory of one person. I'm curious if anyone else vibes with this at all.

[prokopetz]

I think a lot of the skepticism and derision toward the idea of "gifted kid burnout" stems from the fact that a lot of folks have no idea what the gifted track in most high schools actually looks like; they've got this mental image, possibly informed by popular media depictions, of "gifted kids" as a privileged group of students who get to go on extra field trips, monopolise the teachers' attention in class, and constantly be told how special they are, but who are otherwise treated identically to all the other kids.

In practice, the gifted track in most high schools – most North American high schools, at any rate – has the same problem as any other educational program: the need to adhere to published metrics. These programs exist for the benefit of students only insofar as those benefits can empirically be measured, which leads to several common outcomes:

Students on the gifted track being afforded fewer choices regarding elective classes – often to the extent of having no choices at all – in order to stream the highest-performing students into the subjects that are most valuable in terms of boosting institutional metrics.

Students on the gifted tracking receiving restricted access to educational resources such as tutoring because it's perceived as a waste of funding. In many cases, gifted students are not only denied access to tutoring, but expected to serve as volunteer tutors and teaching assistants themselves, effectively becoming a source of unpaid educational labour for the schools they attend.

Students on the gifted track being assigned considerably more homework, often literally doubling their workload in an environment where homework loads are already routinely high enough that kids have difficulty finding time to eat and sleep, simply because you get more measurable academic performance data that way.

The upshot is that the gifted track is often less about fun perks and constant praise, and more about receiving less freedom, fewer resources, and heavier workloads than one's peers, getting strong-armed into providing unpaid labour to the school on top of it, and constantly being told one should be grateful for it – and that's without touching on the fact that the unspoken secondary purpose of many gifted programs is to serve as a quarantine for all the neurodivergent kids the school couldn't find an excuse to institutionalise or expel.

Like, shit, there's a reason kids on the gifted track exhibit elevated rates of alcoholism and substance abuse compared to general student populations. That doesn't arise in a vacuum!

(To be clear, I'm not saying that people graduating from high school and immediately having an existential crisis upon realising they're not special after all isn't a thing that happens, but in my experience that's more usually something that happens to the kids who were on the football team, and reframing it as a nerd culture thing is really weird.)

[tainbocuailnge]

a lot of arknights gameplay discussion is built on certain assumptions about how people (are supposed to) play arknights, often without being aware that these assumptions are being made, and thus the common gamepress (rip)/reddit assessments of whether an operator is good or bad will be assessing their suitability for a style of play that is not remotely universal, but is still assumed to be universal, because it is the playstyle of the people who are writing these assessments.

this post is not about which playstyle is better, but rather about the way people talk about operator design and viability. if your way of playing arknights aligns with the assumptions that redditors often have about how to play arknights, then their advice is very useful, they are usually correct in their assessment of how suitable an operator is to that particular playstyle. it's also a single player game and how anyone else plays it has no bearing on what I'm doing myself, so in that sense it doesn't really matter to me that redditors talk about arknights in a way that doesn't align with how I play arknights.

I think reddit-style discussion is keeping a lot of players from experimenting and discovering that they actually like a different way of playing arknights more though, because they're caught in the idea that if this is how people talk about arknights, then that must be the right way to play arknights. I also think it causes a lot of players to view a lot of units in a bad light, or rather, they are assessing these operators by metrics that the operator is not trying to meet.

lucilla is often called a bad or poorly designed unit because her debuffs only affect regular enemies instead of the elites that would usually be the main threat. however, the debuffs she applies are very potent when they apply, so when her conditions are met she performs exactly as intended. in gamemodes where regular enemies can grow really bulky like IS or CC or SSS, or maps featuring bulky enemies that nonetheless are not categorised as elites like sarkaz wither aegis, lucilla successfully achieves her intended purpose of outperforming existing hexers in specific scenarios (her fragile can reach the highest value in the game and its only condition is whether the enemy is elite or not) without being a direct upgrade (the rest can actually debuff elites). not many players value what lucilla offers, but if you like engaging with and working around map and operator gimmicks, lucilla is a good operator for you.

wisadel is good at instantly clearing whole sections of the map, which is something many players value, but if you don't /want/ to instantly clear whole sections of the map because you want to actually engage with the map mechanics, she is not a good operator. she performs just as well as lucilla at her intended role, the difference is that wisadel's intended role aligns with the redditor assumption of how to play arknights while lucilla's doesn't. this friction between the assumed way of playing and the way many people actually play was highly visible during the icebreaker games, where a lot of players started bringing aak just to get rid of the other guy's wisadel so that she couldn't blow up the map before they got to actually play it.

"is this operator good" is a question that includes many unspoken metrics, including ones that the person asking might not actually want to judge an operator by. it can be a useful shorthand to speed up discussion of where and how one might want to use an operator, but it is only useful if these unspoken metrics are actually consistent between all participants of the discussion, which in practise is rarely the case. someone who is talking about how one might use lucilla doesn't want to hear that gnosis is better or that it'd be easier to just blow everyone up with wisadel, and someone who is looking for easy to use broadly applicable operators doesn't really want to hear that lucilla is actually really good in specific situations.

the more nicheknights I play and watch, the more I come to doubt how useful it is to talk about operators as being "good" or "bad" to begin with. across all of arknights there is not a single operator that is objectively unuseable. I would also argue that nearly every operator is capable of doing what they're intended to do. every operator has a combination of qualities that is completely unique to them, which means every operator can be in a strategy that relies on that specific operator's qualities to succeed. u-official was specifically designed to be as useless as possible as a joke, and high-level challenge players have still found various uses for a 3dp ranged unit that doesn't attack + doesn't take up deployment slots + can stun enemies + can temporarily make allies stop blocking.

exploiting the unique qualities of operators that are often overlooked for easier to use alternatives is the core principle of nicheknights. the fewer options you have and the more you try to cut down on the amount of operators used, the more each individual operator's unique qualities will shine. just earlier today I saw a clear that used a combination of the aspd debuff inflicted by zaaro and the fact that manual deactivation skills will cancel attack animations to delay mr. nothing's attacks long enough that every attack he does will trigger his stun talent, largely preventing zaaro from doing anything.

arknights also has immense variety in map and enemy design, so use cases for operators often dismissed as too niche to bother actually occur fairly often. every single chapter and story event introduces both new map mechanics and new enemies that make use of those mechanics. often the less straightforward a unit is, the more ways they have of interacting with these mechanics to open up potential new strategies. even without any self-imposed challenges, different gamemodes all have various restrictions and opportunities that make certain operator qualities more or less desirable, and the combination of collectibles and risks you pick in IS or CC can completely change how you approach each map. in RA you can straight up build the map yourself to be as beneficial to your operator of choice as possible.

beehunter's high attack speed but low damage made her fairly unremarkable until the game introduced hitcount-based mechanics. corroserum is rarely built because ifrit had been in the game so long already by the time of his release and he's not ifrit, but just the past month there have been two separate maps where a large amount of silenceable enemies approach the blue box in a straight line for him to trivialise. warmy is arguably the most difficult to use unit in global right now because the only way to inflict the burn status that her s2 capitalises on is using her s1, but now there's path of life letting just anyone inflict burn so she's free to use s2 anyway. if the situation where your gimmick unit of choice can shine doesn't exist yet it will be created sooner or later, because these units were created to have their gimmicks exploited.

arknights is a highly varied strategy game that offers many different ways to engage with its mechanics, including some ways to not actually engage with the mechanics and just explode everything instead. the game offers these options so exploding everything isn't the wrong way to play arknights, but the game also offers many other options so it's not the right way to play arknights either, it's just one of the many ways available. an operator that seems way too gimmicky or specialised to see much general use is not poorly designed, they are designed for a particular playstyle that simply differs from the playstyle that is assumed in a lot of operator discussion. units like lucilla or tsukinogi or leto aren't meant for players who ask "when would I ever use this when I have far easier options", they're meant for players who ask "what strategy would allow this combination of qualities to shine".

this is the issue at the root of why a lot of perfectly serviceable operators get stamped as being bad, and also the answer to the question of why arknights would be releasing these bad operators in the first place. crownslayer is a bad unit for the type of player that want to kill everything as fast as possible, but she's great for players who like gimmicks and weird interactions. many recent 5* are bad units for powergamers because they're trying to not to intrude on their existing subclass colleagues by doing something more conditional instead, or they're experiments for new subclasses that don't have an immediate obvious use case. many times throughout the game's history a new operator has been dismissed as bad only to turn out to be very powerful if you play them the way they're designed to, like dorothy, gnosis, ebenholz, and even specter alter.

all of which is to say, operator discussion would be a lot more useful to everyone involved if it talked about what situations would make the best use of the operator's abilities, rather than whether the operator is Good according a metric that is rarely even properly specified.

[rottenpumpkin13]

please how does friendsgiving go for asgzc??

• Sephiroth spends three weeks researching "typical family Thanksgiving dynamics". His primary conclusion: family gatherings are less about gratitude and more about emotional warfare. He decides he will replicate this to get the most authentic experience possible.

• Angeal assigns everyone designated dishes through a groupchat he forcibly created titled "ain't nobody help last year"

• Texts sent to the group include "Genesis, you're on pie duty, and I swear to Gaia if you bring apple pie instead of pumpkin pie ,I'll personally escort you back to the goddess with a wooden spoon inserted in an unkind place."

• Sephiroth walks through the door and immediately starts asking everyone who they voted for in the last election.

• Cloud is assigned potatoes. He brings yams. Angeal is confused. Cloud is confused. Angeal just pats him on the head and tells him to go sit down.

• Zack is banned from bringing anything requiring actual cooking after the time he tried to "speed up" the cooking process with fire materia and singed off Angeal's eyebrows. He's now only allowed to bring drinks and plastic utensils. Still manages to bring paper plates that dissolve on contact with hot food.

• Sephiroth sees Zack and Cloud having a friendly talk and decides to bring up Aerith and his opinions on who's a better suitor for her.

• Angeal starts stress drinking in the kitchen as soon as Genesis walks through the door with an apple pie and his sword to defend himself.

• Zack gets effectively banned from the kitchen because he keeps picking at the food and eating it. Angeal tried the wooden spoon as a method of discipline, but the spoon had gravy on it so Zack kept trying to lick it.

• Sephiroth hones in on Zack as he's leaving the kitchen.

Sephiroth: So how are your career aspirations progressing relative to statistically average performance metrics for individuals of your demographic? *Zack starts crying*

• Cloud brought Banora White apples instead of the bread rolls he was assigned. When asked about this, he says Genesis told him bread rolls were "cancelled" and he had to bring apples instead. Angeal has the type of breakdown where he's on the kitchen floor, laughing with a wine glass in hand while having a conversation with the turkey in the oven.

• Angeal posts an aesthetic picture on his social media with the whole group smiling. He captions it "Grateful for friends ❤️" but the reality is that he yelled at them two minutes before the photo was taken because no one remembered to bring drinks.

• Three different music playlists compete for dominance: Genesis' orchestral versions of Loveless: the musical, Zack's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" on repeat, and Sephiroth's documentary podcast about the history of cutlery.

• There's a photo of Sephiroth on Zack's camera roll where he's dissociating while eating a turkey leg ???

• Cloud and Zack have a fallout because the way mac n' cheese is made in Gongaga vs. Nibelheim is a serious cultural divide.

Zack: In Gongaga, we add tomato sauce! Cloud: In Nibelheim, we add breadcrumbs! Sephiroth: Mac n' cheese is not native to either regions. *unintelligible yelling from Zack and Cloud*

• Genesis is asked to lead the group in prayer before the meal.

Genesis: Our goddess who resides within the Lifestream, when the war of the beasts brings about the world's end— Zack: NO.

• They all go around saying what they're thankful for.

Zack: I'm thankful for my best friend Cloud!

Cloud: I'm thankful for the opportunity to be here with you guys.

Genesis: I'm thankful for poetry.

Angeal: I'm thankful for patience and wine.

Sephiroth: I'm thankful that statistically speaking, all of us have unresolved childhood traumas that directly stem from our inability to process emotions, form healthy attachments, and keep secrets. For example, Genesis broke Angeal's favorite mug.

Genesis: YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN'T TELL!

Angeal: THE GREEN MUG?

Zack: WTF YOU TOLD ME THE YELLOW MUG I GAVE YOU FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY WAS YOUR FAVORITE!

Cloud: YOU GAVE ANGEAL A MUG BUT GOT ME A KEYCHAIN?

*they all start yelling at each other*

Sephiroth: Thanksgiving feels authentic now.

[mollysunder]

The Medarda Family and the True Goal of Shimmer

Nature has made us intolerant to change, but fortunately, we have the capacity to change our nature. -Singed

For most of s1 the only versions of magic the audience really gets familiar with are visualized through hextech blue and shimmer pink, but we can't trust it to represent what actual magic is like on Runeterra. People from PnZ are incredibly unfamiliar with magic, it was banned for centuries, and they're mostly retracing steps and doing guess work. The best metric to understand how magic works is to look at characters and regions that are actually inclined to magic, and the Medardas may be the best example yet.

When Ambessa accepts the Wolf totem from Lamb one half of dual aspects of death, her body is enveloped in a bright purple transformation before being reforged into a red that resembles the kind her ancestors and the Lamb wear.

It's the same bright purple that consumes Sky in Viktor's last experiment with the hexcore in s1.

I think this purple represents magic at its most malleable state, where it can be refined or change others into final products with a proper catalysts. By s1's final scene, we know that Mel possesses magic and likely uses it through her golden armor. We also know it's possible for magic to be a hereditary trait that can be passed down (not perfectly) through family lines, which is prized in Noxus (and Ixtal?).

So if Mel has magic that likely means the Medardas family in general has latent magic that flows through them naturally., but qhat does this have to do with shimmer or PnZ in general?

The Medardas are relevant to PnZ because Zaun leading minds, Silco and Singed, have spent their capital trying to replicate what the Medardas can do!Shimmer doesn't exist purely as a bioweapon, that's frankly secondary to it's point. Shimmer exists as a means to artificially make the users capable of performing magic, or at least shift the user's biology into something that can tolerate magic. Hextech as a solution to the mystery of maguc completely sidesteps the relationship between magic and the user by using machinery as middleman, while shimmer takes a more direct route.

Singed can't literally biohack nonmagical people into mages all by himself. Singed instead developed what's essentially a hormone therapy to give users temporary magic abilities by synthesizing shimmer from these mysterious plants that resembles the color of the magic within Ambessa before her deal with the Lamb.

Why didn't Singed and Silco just give people the magic purple plants directly if it's capable turning them into mages? Sky and Rio might be the best examples for why you don't do that. When young Viktor feeds Rio the purple plants we see Rio immediately lose vigor, as an audience most of us assumed that was simply Rio's pre-existing condition acting up, but the relationship is more simple. When Singed said Rio was dying, he said it with surety because Singed KNEW the exposure to magic was killing Rio. And Sky was DISINTEGRATED upon being exposed to the hexcore's magic.

In that vein, Singed used Rio as a work around. From what we see non-mage humans absolutely cannot tolerate exposure to even base magic, but Rio was able to last longer. Instead Singed and Silco exposed Zaun to a version of those magic flowers that was broken down by Rio's metabolism into a more version that non-magical humans can tolerate.

The wild thing is that all this effort is to get non-mage users to Ambessa's UNREALISED state, the purple is just the base magic that exists in mages. Even still, Singed seems to have developed the kind of strain of shimmer that's the closest he's ever come to real magic, and Viktor and Jinx used it.

Viktor's own magical transformation has been facilitated by the hexcore in the same way the Lamb facilitated Ambessa's transformation. Do i think Viktor has essentially created his own Aspect through the hexcore? NO.

But in the same way shimmer is facsimilie of magical ability, so too is the hexcore a subsitute for living magic. And by living magic I don't mean unicorns or mermaids, I mean magic that is given consciousness and shape by being tethered to human concepts. And the hexcore's basic purpose is supposed to be magic that thinks and Viktor has tethered it to the human plane with his blood.

This all begs the question about what could exposure to the hexcore do to long term shimmer users? What WILL it do to Jinx? We all know that's inevitable next season.

You see, power, real power doesn't come to those who were born strongest or fastest or smartest. No. It comes to those who will do anything to achieve it. -Silco

Tldr: Shimmer is a large-scale project to turn the population of Zaun into mages, or magically tolerant, by essentially microdosing the population with magic through shimmer.

[jesncin]

I'm curious about you referring to white voice actors playing non-white characters as "skinsuit representation". Would you feel the same way about a white character voiced by a non-white voice actor? Is it important only if the character has specific cultural ties?

I personally think that most of the time the most important aspect of voice casting is how well they play the character, and everything else is secondary.

The key flaw to this kind of logic is that we simply don't live in a meritocracy. The industry doesn't hire solely based on skill, systemic biases come into play. I don't have a problem with like, Phil LaMarr voicing white Aquaman in Young Justice because if POC voice actors voiced only POC characters, they wouldn't get a lot of jobs because of how white the media and the industry is.

So when a white actor voices a character of color, to me, that's taking away one of the few job opportunities designed for actors of color. There's hiring based on skill and then there's also labor justice. How can new voice actors of color gain experience in voice acting professionally when there's so few jobs for them to get to hone their craft? It's about how the talent behind animated projects should reflect the diversity they're presenting on screen. You can't claim to be a "diverse" show when that diversity is only on screen. That's performative.

And to your point "the most important aspect of voice acting is how well they play the character",,,how does a white voice actor do a better job voicing a non-white character than a more authentically cast voice actor? It's the same logic behind when you say "is it important only if the character has specific cultural ties" How would we arbitrarily measure how culturally connected a character is? And is that a fair metric for deciding if that animated character is worthy of being casted authentically? Regardless of where a character falls in this chart I made, I think they all should be casted authentically.

I hope that in the inevitable animated musical biopic about my life atrocities and crimes, the movie doesn't use the fact that I'm not particularly culturally connected to justify casting Scarlett Johansson as me. Or Awkwafina.

[utopians]

I don't want to be that guy but that's not pseudoscience? The prefrontal cortex isn't fully developed until around the mid to late twenties bc the synaptic connections between neurons in that part of the brain are the last to develop. Source: https:// doi.org /10.1038/ s41386-021-01137-9

I think there might be a miscommunication happening here -- the pseudoscience isn't the assertion that synaptic development continues into adulthood, it's the assertion that synaptic development defines adulthood.

I have now read this whole article and the only assertion that it makes that's relevant to this discussion is that synaptic development continues "into the 3rd decade of life". this doesn't -- at least in my opinion -- give any meaningful credence to the idea that the brain isn't fully 'mature' until this point, bc this idea relies on the assumption that 'maturity' is a static biochemical state that the brain organically reaches and not a complex interplay of life experience, societal conceptions of 'maturity' and 'adulthood', and individual variations in development/cognition in addition to the broader process of brain development. additionally, 'brain development' is far more complicated than just the synapses of the prefrontal cortex finishing development, and is a process that continues throughout one's life.

CONTINUED below the cut bc I don't want to annihilate everyone's dash with this but I have a lot more to say

continuing the previous thought: if we're measuring maturity strictly by brain development, then things get extremely dicey, because the brain continues changing beyond your twenties and throughout adulthood! consider this study, which finds that the age of peak performance for different cognitive abilities varies widely, with some peaking around 20 and others closer to 50. the brain doesn't reach a state of 'maturity' in its cognitive functions at age 25 that it then maintains consistently through adulthood, it's far more complicated than that.

essentially, while synapses in the prefrontal cortex keep developing into your 20s (curious as to where you got 'mid to late twenties' from as well; the study only references 'the third decade of life', which could mean anything from 20 to 30), the idea that this development means anything particularly concrete about maturity or adulthood is based on (imo) a faulty and oversimplified understanding of both the brain and what 'maturity' actually means in the context of society. if your conception of 'maturity' asserts that adulthood begins in the late twenties, this conception may be due for a serious reevaluation.

and the reason I'm concerned about all this isn't because I'm a pedant -- it's because this matters in our current political climate. conservative politicians in the UK are currently trying to raise the legal age at which one can transition to 25 based on exactly this faulty conception of maturity, which argues that trans people can't make 'adult' decisions about their own bodies until this point. this is wildly infantilizing and patronizing, and I imagine I don't have to explain why it's a problem, but to elaborate: adulthood and maturity aren't apolitical concepts, and the assertion that adults don't have the right to bodily autonomy because they have been deemed medically incompetent by a truly arbitrary metric is an act of political violence.

I highly recommend this slate article: it goes into this topic in a lot more depth than I do, and features commentary from a lot of neuroscientists who know a lot more about this than me.

[andhumanslovedstories]

is there an appropriate time/way to contact one’s care team about post-op pain meds outside of the hospital? one of my parents had a TKA a few days ago and is in excruciating pain despite their meds but is hesitant to reach out to the dr about better pain management and i don’t know to advocate for them.

I gotta say, once you’re out of the hospital, you’re fully out of my area of experience. So I’ll say what general thoughts I got, and then I welcome answers from anyone with better expertise.

Is the patient reluctant to ask for more pain meds because they think they shouldn’t need them, because they’re worried they’ll get addicted, because they don’t want to be a fuss, or because they don’t want to get labeled as drug seeking? People are hesitant about pain meds for a bunch of reasons, it’s always helpful to know exactly what concerns your patient has.

From working with patients doing rehab in the hospital, I find framing pain control in terms of functionality is helpful. Pain is a nebulous concept and varies a lot from person to person. So saying “10/10 pain” is not always as effective as saying “my patient literally will not reposition in bed nor allow me to touch them because they are in agony.” Or being like “my patient would literally rather soil themselves than try to stand up to pivot to the bedside commode.” You link insufficient pain control to an observable limitation. The patient is also able to do this for themselves. What is pain stopping them from doing? Does this patient have PT/OT? Are they able to do it if they are in excruciating pain? You could frame pain med parameters to provider and patient as “what dose/type of med is sufficient to facilitate recovery so the patient doesn’t keep needing pain meds.”

Being able to link medications to observable problems and outcomes is helpful for everyone. Saying “patient was in 7/10 pain and is now in 5/10 pain,” sounds objective, but it’s actually not. That’s the number the patient gave you, it’s ultimately their perception of the pain—useful and good to know, but not by itself the most compelling metric. Adding “patient was unable to walk more than a foot due to pain and is now able to transfer from bed to bathroom and back,” is a more complete clinical picture and gets more to the heart of pain control—pain stops people from living their lives. It is an impediment to function. Pain relief through pharmaceuticals is one way to restore function while pursuing other methods like exercise, decreasing fear and anxiety, and improving sleep.

All this to say, I find more effective communication about pain control frames it less as being pain free (or even decreasing pain) and more about restoring what pain takes away (movement, sleep, ability to participate in therapies, ability to independently perform ADLs). That provides more context to requests for pain meds, establishes a more concrete metric for success, and helps sidestep the emotional and “moral” aspects of pain (that both patients and providers can feel) by focusing on pragmatic function.

[books]

Writer Spotlight: Elise Hu

We recently met with Elise Hu (@elisegoeseast) to discuss her illuminating title, Flawless—Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital. Elise is a journalist, podcaster, and media start-up founder. She’s the host of TED Talks Daily and host-at-large at NPR, where she spent nearly a decade as a reporter. As an international correspondent, she has reported stories from more than a dozen countries and opened NPR’s first-ever Seoul bureau in 2015. Previously, Elise helped found The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit digital start-up, after stops at many stations as a television news reporter. Her journalism work has won the national Edward R. Murrow and duPont Columbia awards, among others. An honors graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, she lives in Los Angeles.

Can you begin by telling us a little bit about how Flawless came to be and what made you want to write about K-beauty?

It’s my unfinished business from my time in Seoul. Especially in the last year I spent living in Korea, I was constantly chasing the latest geopolitical headlines (namely, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s big moves that year). It meant I didn’t get to delve into my nagging frustrations of feeling second-class as an Asian woman in Korea and the under-reported experiences of South Korean women at the time. They were staging record-setting women’s rights rallies during my time abroad in response to a stark gender divide in Korea. It is one of the world’s most influential countries (and the 10th largest economy) and ranks shockingly low on gender equality metrics. That imbalance really shows up in what’s expected of how women should look and behave. Flawless explores the intersection of gender politics and beauty standards.

Flawless punctuates reportage with life writing, anchoring the research within your subjective context as someone who lived in the middle of it but also had an outside eye on it. Was this a conscious decision before you began writing? 

I planned to have fewer of my personal stories in the book, actually. Originally, I wanted to be embedded with South Korean women and girls who would illustrate the social issues I was investigating, but I wound up being the narrative thread because of the pandemic. The lockdowns and two years of long, mandatory quarantines in South Korea meant that traveling there and staying for a while to report and build on-the-ground relationships was nearly impossible. I also have three small children in LA, so the embedding plan was scuttled real fast.

One of the central questions the book asks of globalized society at large, corporations, and various communities is, “What is beauty for?” How has your response to this question changed while producing Flawless? 

I think I’ve gotten simultaneously more optimistic and cynical about it. More cynical in that the more I researched beauty, the more I understood physical beauty as a class performance—humans have long used it to get into rooms—more power in relationships, social communities, economically, or all of the above at once. And, as a class performance, those with the most resources usually have the most access to doing the work it takes (spending the money) to look the part, which is marginalizing for everyone else and keeps lower classes in a cycle of wanting and reaching. On the flip side, I’m more optimistic about what beauty is for, in that I have learned to separate beauty from appearance: I think of beauty in the way I think about love or truth, these universal—and largely spiritual—ideas that we all seek, that feed our souls. And that’s a way to frame beauty that isn’t tied in with overt consumerism or having to modify ourselves at all. 

This is your first book—has anything surprised you in the publishing or publicity process for Flawless?

I was most surprised by how much I enjoyed recording my own audiobook! I felt most in flow and joyful doing that more than anything else. Each sentence I read aloud was exactly the way I heard it in my head when I wrote it, which is such a privilege to have been able to do as an author.

Do you have a favorite reaction from a reader? 

I don’t know if it’s the favorite, but recency bias is a factor—I just got a DM this week from a woman writing about how the book helped put into words so much of what she felt and experienced, despite the fact she is not ethnically Korean, or in Korea, which is the setting of most of the book. It means a lot to me that reporting or art can connect us and illuminate shared experiences…in this case, learning to be more embodied and okay with however we look. 

As a writer, journalist, and mother—how did you practice self-care when juggling work commitments, social life, and the creative processes of writing and editing?

I juggled by relying on my loved ones. I don’t think self-care can exist without caring for one another, and that means asking people in our circles for help. A lot of boba dates, long walks, laughter-filled phone calls, and random weekend trips really got me through the arduous project of book writing (more painful than childbirth, emotionally speaking). 

What is your writing routine like, and how did the process differ from your other reporting work? Did you pick up any habits that you’ve held on to? 

My book writing routine was very meandering, whereas my broadcast reporting and writing are quite linear. I have tight deadlines for news, so it’s wham, bam, and the piece is out. With the book, I had two years to turn in a manuscript. I spent the year of lockdowns in “incubation mode,” where I consumed a lot of books, white papers, articles, and some films and podcasts, just taking in a lot of ideas to see where they might collide with each other and raise questions worth reporting on, letting them swim around in the swamp of my brain. When I was ready to write, I had a freelance editor, the indefatigable Carrie Frye, break my book outline into chunks so I could focus on smaller objectives and specific deadlines. Chunking the book so it didn’t seem like such a massive undertaking helped a lot. As for the writing, I never got to do a writer’s retreat or some idyllic cabin getaway to write. I wrote in the in-between moments—a one or two hour window when I had a break from the TED conference (which I attend every year as a TED host) or in those moments after the kids’ bedtime and before my own. One good habit I got into was getting away from my computer at midday. I’m really good about making lunch dates or going for a run to break up the monotony of staring at my screen all day long.

What’s good advice you’ve received about journalism that you would pass on to anyone just starting out?

All good reporting comes from great questions. Start with a clear question you seek to answer in your story, project, or book, and stay true to it and your quest to answer it. Once you are clear on what the thing is about, you won’t risk wandering too far from your focal point.

Thanks to Elise for answering our questions! You can follow her over at @elisegoeseast and check out her book Flawless here!