Capstone Day1 Gear Up Reflections

Capstone_Day1_GearUp.md

Gear Up Reflections, Turing Mod0 Day1 Capstone

By: Michael Schneider

• What role does empathy play in your life and how has it helped you?
  • I use empathy to understand the people I work and live with. Putting myself in their shoes and seeing the world through their eyes gives me a much better sense of their point of view and feelings. I also appreciate it when people show empathy towards me. Knowing that I sometimes need help encourages me to see others in need as well.
• How does empathy help you build better software?
  • If we can understand the end user of our software better, then we can build programs that are easier and more enjoyable to use. If we take into account limitations others might face we can incorporate solutions from the beggining. In addition, none of us live or work alone and understanding and complimenting those relationships will allow us to be more effective and efficient in our own work. Empathy helps in a wide range of situations and software development is certainly one of them.
• Why is empathy important for working on a team?
  • As I mentioned above, empathy allows us to understand the people we work with. Empathy allows us to recognize when a co-worker needs help or how to best present our own work. We can encourage greater team unity and productivity by employing empathy in all our actions. As a meta skill it allows all other skills to be utilized more effectively and across more individuals.
• Describe a situation in which your ability to empathize with a colleague or teammate was helpful.
  • I empathize with the people who do some of the most basic work. I know their names and at least a basic story of their life. When I've needed cleaning supplies or things like a snow shovel, knowing the janitor Erasmo created a quick resource for borowing those tools. Because I know the security guard Tamy, when there have been threats of theft or violence she respond to my requests for assistance much faster than otherwise. Because I know the UPS delivery person Bill, when I've needed a status update on packages or for a quicker delivery he is able to by-pass the normal UPS procedures and help me out.
• When do you find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these scenarios?
  • I always find it most difficult at the very beginning. Because I feel the process takes some time to show true benifits I try to employee it right away, but wont have good feedback yet on if its working. Its important to remember that as I'm trying to get to know people they are also doing the same. In a large group where nobody knows each other, everyone is struggling to understand their new environment and the people who populate it. So in a round about way, more empathy is always the key to deeper empathy.