Judgement

Yesterday, I sent a very empowering non-fiction book titled "The Science of Getting Rich" to a friend of mine. I was thinking to myself that I hope that he truly sees value in the book, that he really gets it so to speak.

Many such books, including this one, have a chapter at the end that sum up the book.  And even some of the ones that do not, have either a jacket or a first or last page that sum up what the book is about. Often, people will skip ahead to such summaries and decide whether or not they agree with the statements made therein. Thankfully, my friend is not the sort of person that tends to do these things. If he were, then both his time and mine would be completely wasted by my sending it to him.

The problem with people that do act this way is that they will judge the book based solely upon their previous knowledge of the world without actually reading it. The purpose of reading books with "new" information in them is learn about new things not to judge them based on things you already know.

In my personal life, there have been dozens of books that I did not agree with the overall summary at the time, before I read them. But, by following along and reading the guiding principles that made up the unfamiliar philosophies, testing each of the parts individually and finding them to be true, by the end I was entirely in agreement with what was being presented to me. I have become a better stronger person as a result, both physically and mentally.

All of the knowledge within a two hundred page book cannot be imparted in two or three pages. So "judging a book by its cover" just leads to one remaining in ignorance and no new growth can occur as a result.

Now what happens when you judge a person the same way?Quite often one person will be judged by others even before they speak. The way a person dresses and their general posture(the artwork on their cover) will be enough for other people to get a preconceived notion of what that person is about and how they think.  Then they open their mouth and say something and we continue judge them based on what they just said. We use a few chance brief words(the summary of the book) that come out as a way of deciding for ourselves whether or not this person has value.

Since those words are not likely to be that person actually, intentionally summing up their philosophy and  beliefs, it is even more unfair to treat a person this way than a book. The sum total of useful knowledge in any given person would likely fill dozens if not hundred of volumes, if we were to listen to everything that person could actually tell us about their life and experiences.

I believe that if people are not being openly hostile or aggressive there is no reason to discard them simply because we do not agree with the first couple of paragraphs that they speak. When people say something that you feel you may disagree with, ask deep probing questions so that once they have finished answering you have a complete understanding of what exactly it is that they are saying and why they feel that it is true. Then armed with this knowledge make a decision about whether or not you agree with them. But if you do not agree with them, discard the information as being without value, not the person.

Do not make snap decisions based on very little input. You can not make an accurate assessment of the facts until you have them all. Never judge a book by its cover and always give each man enough rope to hang (or free) himself.