Here's Why We Shouldn't Judge
Analyze and consider. Organize and weigh. But rarely judge.
Précis: Let the left hemisphere gather information and organize it, but make sure the left hemisphere then presents the analysis to the right hemisphere for further consideration, which might then refer the matter back to the left hemisphere for further analysis, which should then return again to the right hemisphere with the additional analysis, and so on. The process takes time and often results in suspending firm convictions (opinions or judgments), but that’s good.
I visit my local coffee shop about twice a month.
I normally see the same group of older guys (55-70) sitting around a table, drinking coffee and chatting. They stay for hours. They rev up with caffeine, then sit and talk, burning through their glorious caffeine bursts with enough chatter to consign a Discalced Carmelite to purgatory for a thousand years.1
Caffeine is the Production Drug
And Morning is the Production Period
Caffeine is a drug. Andrew Huberman says you maximize its benefits by drinking your first cup at least 90 minutes after waking and finishing your last cup at least eight hours before bed. This helps reset your Circadian Rhythm, improves sleep, and maximizes energy (including mental stamina and focus).
It makes you more productive, especially in the morning when you’re naturally revving up already.
This combination—the natural energizing that occurs when we first move into the day, reinforced by a shot of caffeine—makes morning the day's production time. History provides a seemingly infinite parade of famous people who prized the morning production hours: Marcus Aurelius, Toni Morrison, Ernest Hemingway (I gotta believe there were some legendary hangovers there). Bestselling author Ryan Holiday recently wrote a short essay about the importance of getting work done in the morning:
Be up and doing. While you’re fresh. While you can. Grab that hour before daylight. Grab that hour before traffic. Grab it while no one is looking, while everyone else is still asleep.
This has been my approach to the day my entire adult life.
The Left Hemisphere Leaps to Judgment
Shift back to the Coffee Club.
The left hemisphere comes up with a simple analysis: Morning + Caffeine = Productivity. Conversation is Not Productive. Therefore, Lengthy Morning Hours with Coffee and Conversation Squander Time and Energy.
The analysis is accurate, but the left hemisphere doesn’t stop there. It processes and generates more analysis, quickly morphing from objective analysis into opinion and judgment.
At the coffee shop, the left hemisphere might use its simple analysis to form the opinion that the Coffee Club members are wasting optimum time and energy, unlike people who use them to handle the day’s most important projects. From there, the left hemisphere quickly comes to judgment: the Coffee Club members aren’t as good as people who use the time and energy productively. A feeling of contempt often isn’t far behind.
The Right Hemisphere Objects: “It’s More Complicated”
Did you know that social connectedness is the number one leading indicator for happiness?
“[H]appiness is best predicted by the breadth and depth of one’s social connections.” Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone.
Current science shows a direct correlation between social integration and lower rates of colds, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, depression, and premature death of all sorts. The positive effects of social integration are probably as great as the negative effects of smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, and physical inactivity.
The CEO pumps away at his morning workout, and the Coffee Club members pump away at their morning social connectedness.
Who’s healthier? Most people would intuitively respond, “the CEO,” until they saw the current science.
Moreover, maybe the Coffee Club members are predominantly extroverted. Extroverts gain energy from interaction (unlike introverts, who gain energy from being alone). Maybe the Coffee Club members supercharge their caffeine intake with interaction energy and then set out to conquer the day.
It’s also worth remembering that, as Mother Teresa liked to remind people, we aren’t called to be successful. As a corollary, productivity isn’t the primary aim of life. The primary aim of life is happiness: a sense of contentment that augurs the final happiness and contentment of the Beatific Vision. No matter what a person thinks about the Coffee Club members, one thing is sure: they look happy in one another’s company.2
The Left Hemisphere’s Initial Reconnaissance Isn’t Wrong. It’s Just Always Incomplete.
Chirality is a property where an image cannot be imposed on its mirror opposite. The best example is your hands. They’re the same, but they’re the opposite: you can’t put your right hand in a left-handed glove. It’s similar to the yin and yang and their shading. Your hands and the yin-yang show the interdependence of independent things.
Through modern physics, we know now that chirality is found everywhere. It’s a universal theme.3
The hemispheres reflect this chirality. They kind of work together like our hands, passing things back and forth and getting us through life, even though one hand (usually the right) is dominant.
That, anyway, is what happens in a healthy mental life, with our right hemispheres in the dominant (master) role.
Shift back to the Coffee Club. The left hemisphere provided good reconnaissance to the right hemisphere. The analysis (caffeine and precious morning hours are not being used on jobs that need peak performance) is accurate, but at that point, instead of proceeding to opinion, judgment, and even condemnation, the left hemisphere should’ve taken the analysis to the right hemisphere, so it could process, weigh, suspend action until further notice, refer the issue back to the left hemisphere for more analysis, or whatever else.
Huberman is right, but that doesn’t mean the Coffee Club members are wrong. Perhaps we are most productive when we are unproductive.4
Maybe the Coffee Club members’ approach is good for them and bad for me. Or maybe I should be more like the Coffee Club members, or maybe they should be more like me.
I don’t know the answer. I’ll continue to consider the Coffee Club members’ relaxed yet caffeinated morning contentment against the prudence of using caffeine and morning hours for the day’s most important work.
As for the Coffee Club members themselves? I don’t much care. If it works for them, great. If they’re wasting their time? Fine. I just kinda like seeing them there, enjoying themselves. It’s a good thing, even if it’s not my thing and even if I can’t square it with my theories.
This, I believe, is where we normally arrive if the hemispheres are functioning properly. We arrive at a suspension of conviction: no opinion, much less judgment. Neither affirmation nor condemnation, but just acceptance, maybe a shrug, a soft skepticism that isn’t even sure about its skepticism.
In my case, I’ve concluded that my hemispheres have a hard enough time just keeping their human host on the rails. I also suspect God blesses the Coffee Club members, so they sure as heck don’t need my blessing, much less approval.
Endnotes
The Discalced Carmelites founder, St. Theresa Avila, strongly cautioned against excessive conversation. If I understand her admonitions correctly, she questioned any conversation beyond the necessary or spiritual.
These are older men I see around town. In other settings, they look dour. At that table, they look alive. The difference is palpable.
“Chirality is everywhere in the cosmos.” Iain McGilchrist, The Matter with Things, p. 1033.
The left hemisphere hates paradox, incidentally. They’re true but not logical. Paradox to the left hemisphere is what a beautiful nun would be to a libidinous man . . . which kinda brings us back to endnote 1 and Theresa Avila, who was supposedly shockingly attractive.