Update 2024.05.26: I have since written a more pragmatic take on the subject:
There’s observing
And then there’s judging and comparing and labelling
Indeed you must judge. Judge those you work with. Judge who to trust. Judge the potential dangers.
Indeed you must compare. This is how you come up with the better option of the two. Which is how you improve.
Indeed you must label. This is how you organise reality.
Indeed you must be critical. This is how you communicate improvement.
You use the above to solve real world problems
You use the above to learn and to become inspired and to challenge yourself and to test yourself and test your methods and philosophies and skills.
It serves particular purpose.
And when it no longer serves that purpose?
When it no longer serves that purpose — it becomes a perversion.
Solutions to problems you don’t have become the problems themself.
You go about judging left and right and labelling and criticising and comparing — and what do you gain?
You were born with a purpose: to observe, to learn, to do things, to evolve, to climb on the shoulders of giants, and one day be a giant
And you’ve been watching eagerly and learning, and trying things, and learning to walk, learning to talk, learning to read, learning to write, learning to do things, learning to build
Until something happened to you and you CEASED learning
You CEASED ELEVATING yourself
You got stuck at some level on which there’s not so much more for you to do, not so much more for you to learn — and now you linger there
And all that’s left of that pristine curiosity and desire to watch and learn and challenge yourself the world… all that’s left of it is an EGO
And that EGO is labelling and criticising and comparing — but it’s not learning anything any more
It’s doing it out of habit
But without any real purpose
It has became a sickness
You don’t want to be judgemental. You don’t want to be critical. You don’t want to “see through bs”. You don’t want to be proud. You don’t want an ego. You don’t want to compare yourself till the day you die.
You DO WANT those critical skills, yes.
You want those skills to be able to LEARN — any time there’s something to learn.
You want those skills to IMPROVE — when it’s possible to improve.
But you want to be the MASTER of those instruments — rather than have them master you
You don’t want to be the slave to the habit of JUDGING and CRITICISING everything around you, no
It’s unproductive. You want to be discriminating with your discrimination. You don’t want to waste your mental bandwidth on every petty nonsense under the sun.
It’s uncreative. You don’t want your mind to run in an endless loop designed to maintain your precious Weltanschauung. You want to grow, expand, learn. When there’s no more growth, no more learning — then it’s time to die. Either keep learning, keep creating — or DIE already.
Develop a sense of scarcity about your attention, your judgement, your thought,
Ask yourself what you’re GAINING from habitually running the same MENTAL PROCESS again
Ask yourself what purpose does it serve
Does it serve you?
Does it expand your understanding, does it inspire more creativity, does it solve a real problem?
Or does it merely rigidifies you, makes your beliefs and ego even more deeply ingrained?
There’s no time to waste. There’s no thought to waste. You could be learning and solving real problems and becoming MORE than you’ve ever been…
You will only have so many thoughts in your life, so many ideas in your life, so much time in your life
Don’t waste those thoughts mulling over nonsense which only serves your ego, your weak identity,
Become MORE than you are — by thinking NEW thoughts, learning NEW things, observing new realities
…and this goes ALL THE WAY: macro, micro
Your long term undertakings and your everyday occurrences
All of that generates thoughts and feelings,
Are you judging and criticising and labelling?
Does it serve you? Does it serve a real purpose?
Or does it only serve the ego, is it just you talking to yourself about yourself — as compared with something, someone?
Become MORE then that
Don’t waste your thoughts, don’t waste your attention
Make them all count
OBSERVE instead,
SEEK to observe something you haven’t observed before
Even if it’s just another day which looks just like the last one — FIND SOMETHING NEW IN IT.
If it’s the same house, the same street, the same people, the same reality — FIND SOMETHING NEW IN IT,
Change it — if you’re sick of it,
Change it — preferably — it’s easier to have new thoughts in a new reality
Or don’t change it — just CHANGE your MIND.
And all can be the same — but you can look at it differently
You don’t have to deny everything you saw thus far. You don’t have to deny all your criticism, all your understanding, all your attitudes, all your learnings
I just want you to become FULLY CONSCIOUS of them, once again
Those reflections were once fresh, were once new, were once precious, were once very meaningful — but now they became a habit, a subconscious process, a residue — and perhaps no longer so meaningful, no longer so precious
Please become aware of them, again
And if you don’t love them — let them go
If you’re able to actually observe reality anew — you’ll find new ideas to cherish
Observe
Use your perception wisely
Penetrate, digest, label, assimilate, criticise, judge, make decisions, have preferences, have ideas, have beliefs…
Use those tools so that they serve you
Learn from them
Then learn more from them
Don’t be afraid to UNLEARN
Use those tools to observe again, learn again,
Make sure you learn more,
Make sure what you learn serves you
Discard what no longer serves you
Observe again