These are excerpts from the author’s book “Deep,” which contains eight of his small books published in the form of Wisdom Literature covering different aspects of life: Facing troublemakers, dealing with pain, personal financial issues, gastronomy, reading, criticizing, inspiring, and feeling always good to go.

Series 6: Criticizing

Criticizing New Ideas

• New ideas are usually provocative in some way or another, prompting you either to accept or reject them directly. Pay attention to what these ideas arouse in you at first, but do not rush to pass judgment on them unless you are motivated to do so by an urgent need. In any case, there is nothing to prevent you from reevaluating any idea later and changing your vision of it, according to what you think of new data and factors.

• If you can’t realize a strange idea, give it some time before you judge it. Strange ideas seem odd in the beginning, and then you get used to them after a while, so that they can be criticized and judged away from the restrictions of their strangeness.

• It is difficult, if not impossible, to criticize any new idea, apart from trying to find a similar one to compare it to. Try as much as you can to allow the new idea to express itself in front of you, as impartially as possible, so that you can give it the specific criticism it deserves.

• Some new ideas—or perhaps many of them—do not involve creativity, but every act of creativity necessarily involves a new idea. Do not skimp on focusing for some time to explore the possibility of creativity within any new idea presented to you.

• Do not be excited to show your skills at revealing that the idea presented to you is not new but rather an old one that you previously rejected. Give yourself the opportunity to discover what may be new in any aspect of the idea as it is presented this time. Moreover, do not hesitate to announce your acceptance of the idea in full if you reevaluated it and did not find any change except your satisfaction with it this time. The horizons opening up for you may have exposed visions that were not available before.

• Don’t make your rejection of any idea cut and dried. It is best to present your rejection of any idea—if it is inevitable—accompanied by enhancing proposals that, if considered, might make the idea more acceptable.

• The challenge in receiving daring new ideas does not lie in those presented by a well-known party or an eminent person but rather in those that come from an insignificant party or by someone who is not well-known.

• Sometimes a new idea deserves a hearing in order to encourage difference and innovation, even if it is not strong. The value of an incomplete new idea may lie in opening the way for strong and well-defined ideas afterward.

• New ideas are opportunities to sharpen and test your critical skills. Try not to let anything distract you from seizing these opportunities and benefiting from them as best you can whenever they come to you, as it is not something that is available to you every day.

• The issue is not merely criticizing the idea in your hands by clarifying your opinion about whether it is acceptable or not and detailing the supporting reasons for each case. An idea comes into your possession at the level of criticism. It is at the heart of the process of criticism to feed an old idea with proposals that, if taken into account, would bring it into a completely new image.