Let G be a group acting on a projective variety. If G is noncompact, the quotient space X/G is in general "bad". In this talk I will discuss two methods to make this quotient "good", i.e. GIT and symplectic reduction. Both methods include the idea of keeping "good orbits" and throwing away "bad orbits". Hilbert-Mumford criterion provides a way to distinguish good orbits (which are called stable orbits) and the Kempf-Ness theorem tells us two methods produce the same quotient space. I will use several examples to show how Hilbert-Mumford criterion and the Kempf-Ness theorem work.