PreWork on Empathy

Gear Up PreWork

1. The biggest role empathy has played in my life is developing a sense of patience and understanding with others. I worked
in restaurants throughout highschool and college. You get treated pretty poorly as a waiter sometimes, even if you feel
like you're doing everything right. Sometimes you also make simple mistakes, which usually have simple solutions. I feel
like I have significantly more patience for someone making mistakes or struggling with what seems like a simple task. That
order of french fries being perfect doesn't really matter in the big picture. I also understand that sometimes people just
have a bad day and lash out for no reason, that doesn't make them a bad person.

2. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. This means empathy requires you to see
the world from someone else's perspective. This different way of thinking allows you to "think outside your own box" when
developing software. You might find a new application for said product or change some preconceived notions. It allows to
discove future mistakes and potentially prevent them.

3. Empathy is extremely important when working on a team because we're all different and we need empathy to see past each
others' differences. Each person has their own strengths and weaknesses, empathy allows us to see past those weaknesses
and utilize each others' strengths. An empathetic approach allows allows you to see what your teammates are capable of 
rather than just what they say they can do. People can't succeed if you don't give them a chance to. It could turn out 
someone has some undiscovered strengths that the team can benefit from.

4. Waiting tables in college was very stressful for everyone involved, we all had to lean on each other in order to make
the shifts more bearable. I remeber a particular evening when I was bar-backing (assistant bartender) and the bartender
was struggling to get drinks out on time during a busy Friday night. They were getting a bit snappy with us and the bussers.
This bartender usually didn't struggle and could roll with the craziest of nights. Something was obviously up. The other 
bartender and I talked to one of the managers and had the struggling bartender take a break while the manager filled in. They 
insisted on finishing their shift rather than going home. We did end up taking over the struggling bartenders closing duties 
and sending them home early that night. We didn't push the bartender to tell us what was wrong, we just gave them their space 
and opportunities to rest. The next time I saw them I received a pretty long hug and a thank you. An extra 30 minutes out of my
night helped someone deal with whatever they were going through. After that I knew they'd do the same.

5. It can be hard to show empathy when someone is struggling with what seems like very simple concepts to myself, concepts
that are necessary to do the job or task. Especially when we're being paid and considered proffesionals. This is can definetely 
be unfair as I know others feel the same about me. It wouldn't be surprising if an experienced programmer was frustrated with
me struggling through some problems they could solve in a heart beat. The best way to improve my skills in these situations 
is to put myself in others' shoes as often as possible. How would I want to be treated if I was in the same situation? 
If I try to see the problem from their perspective I can find the best way to help them through it. Odds are I'll learn another
approach or solution this way. Helping others helps myself.