gear_up_gist.md

I believe there are ultimately two kinds of peolpe in life, those who will always want to know the truth of any given situation, and those who would prefer not to know the truth if it stands to be detrimental. I have always found myself in pursuit of truth, but a lot of my family and friends it turned out, were not. This led to a lot of arguments with my mother and sister in particular. I would pry at their religous beliefs, calling them "escapes" to hide from whats real, and inevitably would visibly have deeply upset them. It wasn't until my father pointed out that my way doesn't have to be their way, and that it boils down to individual choice, that I realized I was just forcing my own world view on other people. It allowed me to see how I had become the same as the people who had persecuted me and had only tried to vindictively retaliate with a "superior" way of being. This was the beginning of my desire to know why other people think and feel what they do as a means of connecting with them. Until then I had just been building walls and essentially pushing people away to feel right. Empathy allows developers to better understand the best and most beneficial ways to make a product by addressing how it should and could help the user. Actively trying to be empathetic will always be helpful in a team, as it allows you to better understand your team. I don't actually find it hard at all to be empathetic in a professional setting, it seems like the place in which it is almost most necessary in order to conduct yourself appropriately. I don't see myself as a completed work as far as a sense of empathy, but thats because I think we should all be putting constant work into our ability to relate to one another. Having said that, the only real place I see myself needing extra work to remain empathetic is when relating to loud, ignorant people. If ever someone is aiming to gather additional ignorant minds to their fight I find it a little harder not to rise to a similar volume and meet their ignorance with facts. I realize this isn't always the most successful approach and can spend more time on my hesitation getting involved in futile arguments. All of this is important to remain mindful of when working with teams of people, some people have strong opinions and I nobody should feel like they're clashing with my opinions. I would prefer my team mates and coworkers view all of my criticisms as constructive and will always work to keep them that way. I personally work best while working with varied opinions, because it helps broaden the horizons on any project or conversation for that matter. This will almost always lead to a more flushed out conversation, or to deeper, more complete work.