KellyIB

Reflect

After reading the articles above, create a gist on Github and reflect (4-6 sentences) on the following prompts.

What role does empathy play in your life and how has it helped you?

Empathy has always played a key role in my life. It's something I have been aware of in myself from an early age. My sense of empathy has both helped and hindered me throughout my life. It has helped me make better decisions, have a more meaningful impact on other people, to be a better parent, partner, and person through more accurately understanding the people around me (and because people can feel when you care). It has hindered me because there was no meaningful instruction for me on how to manage and balance my concern for others and myself, and I struggled for many years to find it on my own. I especially enjoyed the "Three Kinds of Empathy.." article and have added "Social Intelligence" to my reading list.

How does empathy help you build better software?

KellyIB

Step 3: Please respond to the following questions in a reflection (4-6 sentences):

What is your greatest strength and how do you know?

My greatest strength is a genuine concern for the well-being of others. I have only recently understood this to be an actual strength. This means that I care about others, their trials, and their best-interests. I have achieved, with maturity, objectivity and a comfortable balance between altruism and self-interest. I use empathy in every decision (requiring thought or reflection) that I make.

How do you work best?

When working on a task individually, I work best when I am able to focus intently on my subject. Because I am easily distracted by noise, I strongly prefer quiet spaces to noisy spaces. When working in a group, I find that it doesn't seem to matter if there are extraneous noises.