Post #3

“Judging is preventing us from understanding a new truth. Free yourself from the rules of old judgments and create the space for new understanding.” -Steve Maraboli

Heuristics are mental shortcuts, or rules of thumb that can help streamline thinking and make sense of the world. In its simplest forms, a heuristic approach to things is separating nuts and bolts, but it can also reach the most extensive of problem solving or making precarious judgments of a person. 

Heuristics to me are a way to problem solve or a way of thinking about a problem. One example of such is a maze. Most people will try to solve it forward and then get stuck, and so the most obvious and fulfilling decision is to work the problem in reverse, or backwards. This idea of figuring out a way to think or problem solve, reminds me of my dog when he was younger. When we first got him, we put up a half door to our laundry room to keep him out of the rest of the house while we were at work or school, sort of like a huge kennel. After a few months he learned how to open the door and escape so he could roam the house. My dog was able to use his heuristics, in order to roam the house and sleep on the couch. Though his intentions were wrong, his way of thinking proved astonishing. 

The book gives the examples of meeting someone for the first time and making an instantaneous judgement of them by their interests, looks and mannerism. And most of the time these perceptions run true, but it is also possible to be wrong. The shortcut in judging someone is through a representative heuristic, we judge the probability of an event by its superficial similarity to a prototype. In reality, we make the same judgments of people everyday, when we first start a new class, in a job interview, people passing on the street, and countless other instances. I know, most specifically I use the representative heuristic most when I am looking at what someone is wearing. I can judge whether they are a hipster, a little preppy, smart, wealthy, poor, confident, athletic, among many other characteristics just by what they are wearing. And by judging what someone is wearing, tells me whether or not I want to be associated with this person.

Heuristics simply the world for us and allow our judgments to take over. In some parts, this can be both good and bad. As long as they do not dictate who we are as a person or how we perceive others to be, life should be much more understandable.