Definition

Judgment is when an actor (person or group) rates something along a subjective quality scale that spans from low quality (bad quality) to high quality (good, excellent, awesome).

Examples

1. Two people leaving a movie rate the movie. One says it’s OK (mediocre quality) and the other says it was awesome (high quality).

2. A person takes a driver’s test. The examiner passes them, which says that they drive with enough quality to be issued a license.

3. A product team discussed their product to determine if its quality is high enough yet for releasing the product to customers.

4. The 5-star rating system used by Amazon allows customers and influencers to rate the quality of products.

Rationale

There are several reasons why skilled judgments are worthwhile.

1. Avoid judgments when this is not the appropriate skill to use because judgments hinder or block learning, communication, growth, collaboration, design, and so on.
   1. Favorable judgments tend to suggest no need for learning or improvements.
   2. Unfavorable judgments tend to discourage, provoke anger, provoke pushback, and such.
   3. In the case of learning, collaboration, communication design, and such, the appropriate skills to use to promote growth and connection are skilled observation, feedback, and reflective thinking.
2. Judgments are typically subjective, which means that they depend on actors’ opinions.
   1. Example: One teacher can assign a D grade to a paper, and a different teacher can assign a B- to this paper. The paper is the same in both cases, and the quality scale differs.
3. Judgments have a time and a place. Examples:
   1. Food inspections need to accurately determine which foods are safe to eat.
   2. Driving tests need to accurately determine who is qualified to drive.
   3. Inspections during manufacturing need to ensure that quality standards are being upheld.
4. Skill with judgment keeps one from routinely denigrating others by calling them stupid while elevating self as smart and having “common sense.”

Concerns

1. Judgments are natural like breathing, and most people constantly judge things. In many cases, these judgments hinder or block communication, problem-solving, learning, growth, and improvements of cultures, and so on.
   1. However, most people are unaware of how harmful misapplied judgments are.
   2. Many people think judgments, which they call “constructive criticisms,” are worthwhile.
2. Skilled judgment can be learned. However, the path requires practice with feedback and improvement, and not everyone has the chance to walk this path and reap the rewards that skilled judgment provides.

Skilled Judgment (How To)

Framework

Here is the framework.

1. Selection: Recognize when judgment is appropriate and useful.

2. Quality: Build a quality scale. Make it as objective as possible.

3. Measurement: Use the quality scale.

4. Judgment: Report your findings based on the quality scale.

Tips

1. Pay attention to your thoughts and recognize how often you judge or don’t judge things. Over time, become aware and learn how to get your brain to lessen its judgments.

2. Learn how to skillfully observe things without judging them.

3. When others judge you or judge other things (super common), learn how to

   1. Not feel any emotional reaction.
   2. Convert the judgment into observations.

4. Self-judgment is when a person judges themselves.

   1. Eg: My drawing is awful.
   2. Eg: My code sucks.
   3. Most self-judgments are negative or hugely negative.
   4. Learn to avoid self-judgment.
      1. Focus on strengths and improvements; not high versus low quality.

5. To turn judgments into observations, use questions.

   1. Judgment: The movie was awesome.
      1. Question: What did you like about it?
   2. Judgment: Your website is horrible.
      1. Questions:
         1. What did you see that you didn’t like?
         2. What ideas do you have that will make it better?

6. The essence of observation is this tautology: “It is as it is.” Here is what this means.

   1. Accept the strengths.
   2. Accept that improvements are possible.

7. Accept that unskilled judgments have little value; they are typically a gut reaction.

   1. This is how I keep myself from reacting to them.
      1. This is this person’s opinion.
      2. I accept their opinion.
      3. They may have this right or not; but right now is not the time/place for judgment.

8. Often judgment is communicated nonverbally through tone of voice, volume of voice, and body language.

9. Judgment is often positive. Positive judgment feels great.

   1. Positive judgment is super useful for building relationships.
      1. Thus, use it for that.
   2. Be honest with positive judgments; otherwise, it is manipulative.
   3. Avoid positive judgments when your aim is

10. Often Observations are better than judgment.

    1. Example: I see a long paragraph here, 25 lines long. This is as opposed to emotive language stating that “this paragraph is way too long!”.