Pre-Work Preparation
Read
Read two of the following articles/videos (we recommend all of them!) and reflect on these questions: why are we talking about empathy at a software development school? how can you develop the “skill” of empathy? and why should you care?
	•	“Why is Empathy Important for Design”
	•	“The Surprising (Nontechnical) Skill You Need to Succeed in Tech”, The Muse
	•	“Why Aren’t We More Compassionate?”, TED Talk (Daniel Goleman)
	•	“Can you teach people to have empathy?”, BBC (Jun 29, 2015)
	•	“Three Kinds of Empathy”, Daniel Goleman
	•	“The Importance of Empathy in Our Services-Centric, People-Oriented Economy”, Wall Street Journal Blog (Oct 9, 2015)
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?
	•	How does empathy help you build better software?
	•	Why is empathy important for working on a team?
	•	Describe a situation in which your ability to empathize with a colleague or teammate was helpful.
	•	When do you find it most difficult to be empathetic in professional settings? How can you improve your skills when faced with these scenarios?


Empathy has helped me to keep my mouth shut when I am tempted to “educate” them on what they are doing incorrectly.  You don’t know everything that person has been through, and it is hubris of the worst sort to do so.  Empathy can help you in attempting to learn about who you are dealing with, but never assume you are right.  It is better to ask leading questions to ascertain what knowledge you have that may be helpful.  If you give everyone the benefit of the doubt, especially when it is obvious they made a mistake, you learn not only about the person themselves, but how you can help them.  So much of the time constructive criticism, or help, is ignored because of how it is delivered.  I for one appreciated my supervisors telling me how I could improve, and looked at it as a learning opportunity rather than “I’m screwing up.”  Remain calm in the face of trouble, adrenaline coursing through our veins when we get agitated, only serves to fuel our bodies, not our rational thoughts and emotions.