The Joy of Non-Judgement

Sometimes I am frustrated at the slow pace of my work. Some programming problems can be quite challenging and it takes me a couple of iterations before I could zero in on the best solution. I worked for more than five hours today but ended my work session feeling like I did not accomplish that much. I get this feeling all the time. But I'm also experienced enough to know that it is the cumulative work that counts. As long as you move forward every day, you will certainly amass a volume of work that will astound you after a while.

When it comes to work, I confess that I do have a tendency to judge myself a bit too harshly. But I am learning to be less of a perfectionist. This blog is in keeping with that philosophy of imperfection: I try to write spontaneously without revising too much. These are essentially first drafts of my thoughts. By not judging too much about my writing here, I ended up writing a lot after all these years.

I treat food the same way too. I am not fussy about what I eat. I do have my favourite dishes and places to eat but I usual eat what's conveniently available. I find most Asian and Western food agreeable. I also believe that all food tastes great when you are hungry. So the trick is to make sure you only eat when you are famished.

Craving and aversion are two extremes that I try to avoid. That makes me a rather dull person, I admit. Having strong opinion about things is important especially, if you want to attract a following in social media. Social media is where birds of the same feathers flock together. Many people are not articulate, so they tend to rally around people who champion their own beliefs loudly and eloquently. it is no surprise why we are more divided than ever before because social media amplify our differences and trap us in our own opinion bubbles. We only read or watch news that is agreeable to us because there's enough of agreeable content to go around and the social media algorithms are good at learning to pander to our preferences.

In a world so divided, it is becoming even more of a necessity to be less judgemental about things. If we want to react emotionally every time we read a disagreeable tweet, we'll have plenty to be upset about. Yes, you can disagree and rebut, but being non-judgemental means that you don't have to react emotionally. Understand, evaluate and then form an opinion. Realise that an opinion is nothing but a working hypothesis, subject to change after more data is available. That's how we should move forward.

Being non-judgemental doesn't mean one doesn't have an opinion. Instead we are merely adopting the spirit of exploration. We are like ships navigating in the fog. We are constantly sensing what's in front of us as we sail forward. But we still move forward in a specific direction. That direction is a judgement call that we make. It could be a wrong call, but if it is, we are never too late to make corrections, simply because we adopt a flexible and vigilant stance. And this is the wisdom and joy of non-judgement.