For the longest time, imposter syndrome as a designer has been my constant companion, and I am sure it has been a companion for so many of you. It was in the year 2024, and I surprisingly got a chance to visit UX India (Asia’s biggest UX Design conference) for free. While I was in awe of the entire scenario in my head, I was curious to know who would be that one speaker that would stay carved in my mind. The sun rose in the beautiful city of Bengaluru, India. Everyone traveled from different parts of the world and made themselves settle in space. In the very first half of the day, I found my speaker, then and there, after the talk I decided to invite her on my podcast. There was a sudden urge for her talk to reach more and more people so that they could further go and break ties with their imposter syndromes.
For the first episode, season 2 of The 5 Question Design Podcast let me introduce to you Nishita Mohta, and the topic we spoke together about was ‘Design and the Inner Critic.
Who is Nishita you wonder? Apart from being my favorite speaker, Nishita is a Design Operations consultant for design studios across India, working with creative founders to develop and implement systems & processes that are right for their team. She originally trained as an architect and worked as a graphic designer for many years before discovering her strengths on the business side of design. She is also a design educator, mentoring students & young professionals in developing their voices & skills through action-based learning. Finally, she is the author of “Inspired: The A-Z of Creative Unblocking”, a book about understanding and overcoming the creative mindblocks that we all face — from the initial self-doubt & questioning the originality of our work, to challenges like perfectionism & burnout. Rooted in research from the field of psychology and peppered with real-life stories, this book has been becoming a reader-favorite for its unique structure & writing style.
These roles may seem diverse but her intention is singular — to help more and more creatives untangle the chaos of the creative process and find the life-work balance (no, not work-life, indeed a life-work balance) which is essential for original thinking to flourish.
In this article, I am drafting below for you three major takeaways from the session.
Understanding the Inner Critic
Veda Lad: Psychology has been an intriguing rather drastically growing topic in the kingdom of UX. I have also read your book ‘Inspired’ which has been written more from a psychological perspective. While reading your book, I came across a descriptive differentiation between ‘Inner Critic vs Critical Thinking’. I wish to know, how would you define an Inner Critic in the design context. How would you differentiate between inner critic and critical thinking?
Nishita Mohta: As human beings, we are inherently creative, applying our energies in everything we do. For example, we are talking to someone new, we have to come up with a new of communication or rearrange our living room, etc. In all small instances of our lives, we unconsciously or consciously use our creative brains. And, wherever there is creativity, there is creative fear, because fear is inherently another human emotion that exists in all of us, and the inner critic is nothing but the voice of fear.
Creativity is all about creating change.
As designers, we are constantly trying to make what did not exist before and whenever we are doing that, there is a lot of uncertainty about how the outcome will be received. Therefore, I believe, for a designer, creative fear is not actually the fear of doing bad work, as there is nothing objectively bad. Everything is so subjective in the design world but creative fear, rather the inner critic is actually the fear of being judged for work which is considered bad by other people. The inner critic is nothing but a voice trying to warn us against negative judgment and fear of rejection. But, neither inner critic nor fear is bad, as at the end of the day they are human emotions. The way I look at the inner critic is a voice that is trying to protect us from rejection, just like an overprotective friend. It is just that, it does not know how and how much to protect and in which correct way!
This voice pretends to be more on the conscious side of you, who will give you dozens of different reasons to not start something new, and only remind you of your setbacks. This is no one else but our inner critic talking. It warns us to such a large degree that it absolutely hampers our creative thinking. So, in a nutshell, the inner critic paralyzes creative thinking.
On the other hand, critical thinking is actually a creative superpower. We use it all the time while analyzing a decision or figuring out what does and what does not work. Therefore, critical thinking is a judgment that improves and elevates the creative process. That is the major difference between the inner critic and critical thinking!
We also talked about other important sub-topics such as Evolving the Inner Critic with Experience, Navigating Collaboration and Group Dynamics, Recognizing and Training the Inner Critic, and The Impact of AI on Creativity.
My speaker Nishita Mohta has given us more insights into the fields of Design. To know more head onto our full Podcast Episode.
Stay tuned, keep listening, like, and share for more!
