Alright, gather 'round, folks. Let me tell you the wild story of how I went from playing a random card game called Pablo in 2021 to designing a custom deck that was so cool, the UBC Cognitive Systems Society was like, “Yeah, we need this as merch.” And you know what? I made it happen.

So, I’m sitting there, right? Learning this game, and it’s so good, I can’t help but spread the love. I’m teaching people left and right—1,000 people, to be exact. Some have know me as the Pablo guru. One day, the UBC Cognitive Systems Society is like, “Hey, Martin, you should make a custom deck of cards. You know, for merch and stuff.” And I’m like, “Oh, you mean the deck that’s gonna change everything?”

Of course, I couldn’t just make a basic deck of cards. Nah, I had to bring the big guns. So I grabbed Figma—because why use paper when you have Figma?—and got to work designing a deck that represented the four branches of Cognitive Systems: linguistics, philosophy, computer science, and psychology. Here's how it went down:

• Psychology: A brain, obviously. What else would you use? A couch and a therapist? Nah, just a brain—because that’s where all the crazy stuff happens.

  
  

• Computer Science: A computer with binary code. I dare you to come up with something better,

  
  

• Linguistics: A speech bubble. Duh! It’s all about communication, baby. Words, words, words.

  
  

• Philosophy: A thought cloud. Because philosophers are always having deep thoughts like, “What is water?” No joke, we asked ourselves that question for a whole semester.

And for the piece de resistance, I replaced the kings, queens, and jokers with the actual legends of each discipline. Like, why have a boring king when you could have Descartes or Turing in your deck?

Long story short, I got the deck printed, sold it to the Cognitive Systems Society, and... BOOM, great success. People loved it, and I got to mix my love for Pablo with my academic passions. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a goofier project.