Good Judgment

"No hard and fast rules for this operation of selecting and rejecting, or fixing upon the facts, can be given. It all comes back, as we say, to the good judgment, the good sense, of the one judging."

This sentence comes from the chapter "Judgment: interpretation of facts" from the book "How we think" by John Dewey. This is a wonderful book and this chapter is maybe the best thing ever written on judgment and how to develop it. 

Here is another quote that in a wonderful way describes the conditions for intuition to emerge and how it relates to judgment:

"Long brooding over conditions, intimate contact associated with keen interest, through absorption in a multiplicity of allied experiences, tend to bring about those judgments which we call intuitive; but they are true judgments because they are based on intelligent selection and estimation, with the solution of a problem as the controlling standard. Possession of this capacity makes the difference between the artist and the intellectual bungler." (p. 105)

This chapter is full of precise and insightful explanations of the nature of judgment. Dewey discusses the role of analysis and synthesis, how judgments and decisions relate, the origin of ideas and how ideas relate to judgment, what the logic of judgment is, etc.

A must-read for anyone who reflects on judgment as a core of designing.

(No one wants to be a "bungler")