Do you judge me? I would say you do...

Ok so you probably don't judge me as such but judgement of one another comes so naturally (and quickly) that we make up our minds about someone before realising the effects that our own thoughts have on us.

"Judgement appears much too early and impedes the freedom of thought..."

'Unlock your Creative Genius by Bernard Golden, PhD, Prometheus Books, Amherst NY'

I read this sentence (now this is not the full sentence and I have taken it out of context) and I just had to write about the subject. Why we judge one another fascinates me. Why does it come so naturally? Why does it happen so quickly and why do we think we know who someone is just by looking at them? Surely we can only be basing our judgement on our own experiences? If this is the case, then are we all so completely illiberal?

From what I have researched so far, it seems that our perceptions are to blame. Our perception of our environment, including those who are in it, are created by our experiences so far. The only way we can view a person is to match what we see with what we know. This happens instantaneously and before we know it, we have a picture in our minds of who that person is.

Isn't it so narrow minded to think our 'scenario database' has every possible situation in it that we can make these conclusions about people. We are convinced we know someone just by looking at them.

I judge people, just like you do. If you are honest with yourself you will also admit that.

When we see someone new, it will always trigger thoughts of curiosity. Instead of automatically judging someone I am teaching myself to 'wonder' about them instead. It allows me to still think about the person but in a non-judgemental way. Instead of making a conclusion about someones life, I like to wonder what life they have led, what challenges they have faced and success they have had. I wonder what makes them happy, what they are passionate about and what makes them tick. I also like to wonder what is going through their minds.

Having judgemental thoughts about someone does not only 'impede our freedom of thought', it also affect how we interact with people. If we automatically feel negatively about someone before they even get to speak, we limit our interactions and therefore our own experiences in life. Limiting our experiences will limit our perceptions. Perception is what we use everyday to create who we are, what we have around us and our finite path. Do we really want to limit that? I certainly don't.

More food for thought.

Veronica Wood

What is your route to original thought?

Interesting concept don't you think?

 

How does one come up with a new idea, an amazing concept or creation of something so dynamic that it changes the course of their life or the lives of many? Is it by chance that we stumble across such things, are we inspired or is it purely hard work and effort?

 

I would put my money on it being a mixture of all.

 

I read an article recently in Scientific American Mind magazine (amazing mag by the way!) called 'The Science of Genius' and it discusses the notion of genius, how we become one, if we can at all.

 

The article discusses the theory of 'blind variation and selective retention (BVSR)' or to put it more simply, backtracking over failed attempts to discover new ways. How many times have we failed at something and just walked away telling ourselves 'well that just doesn't work' and not going back to try again? Many I am sure. The theory of BVSR proposed by psychologist Donald Campbell leads us to believe that geniuses use this form of research to come up with their 'genius' ideas.

 

"The blindness of blind variation and selective retention (BVSR) merely means that ideas are produced without foresight into their eventual utility. The creator must engage in trial-and-error or generate-and-test procedures to determine the worth of an idea. Two common phenomena characterise BVSR thinking: superfluity and backtracking. Superfluity means that the creator generates a variety of ideas, one or more of which turn out to be useless. Backtracking signifies that the creator must often return to an earlier approach after blindingly going off in the wrong direction."

 

Now I hope I didn't just lose you there. What this is really telling us is that if we want to create something new, we need to revisit our past failures, be open to creating new ideas without really knowing (or worrying about) where they will take us and allowing ourselves to investigate possibilities.

 

We cannot all be geniuses. It takes pure dedication to the research of new concepts and ideas and continuous questioning and backtracking. I don't know about you, but for me there are not enough hours in the day for this type of creative thinking! Although I would love to be a genius and spend all my waking hours researching and creating new ideas, that is not the direction I will take after reading this article. Instead what this says to me is that we can be the best person we can be by revisiting our past failures and trying, trying again.

 

Original thoughts..... how often do you have them? We need them to see different perspectives. When we see a different perspective, our lives instantly change. Our mind opens to new ways of thinking and we become different people.

 

Thought I would share.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Veronica Wood