I'm a software developer who writes about Laravel, JavaScript, Rails, Linux, Docker, WordPress and the tech industry. Follow me on Twitter @tylerlwsmith
While trying to put yourself in the shoes of users is a good thing, boldly proclaiming that you have empathy for users doesn't necessarily mean that you do.
It often feels like when the empathy card is invoked in technical arguments, the subtext is "I care about my users and you don't." It especially feels this way when talking about performance.
There are contexts where page load speed and minimal battery usage is important to users. There are also contexts where the velocity in which you can add features is the only thing that matters. Rather than discussing empathy as a nebulous concept, it may be more fruitful to discuss what our users need from a piece of software, and be mindful that users of other software may need something entirely different.
Sometimes the key thing to understand is that page load speed and battery usage matters a lot as you pointed out. Sometimes it's completely different though.
Empathy is powerful but it is neither good or bad. I have female friends who were in a toxic relationship, and they were fucked up because the dude was good at using empathy to manipulate them.
I think the problem with empathy is that HR-speak in english speaking countries invented this incredibly stupid term of "soft skills" and put it into it. One more thing where you can evaluate people between 1 and 10. I'm being sarcastic.
Empathy is neither soft nor a skill.
It's very hard, and it's not a skill, it's something that you do or it's a personnality trait.
I'm a software developer who writes about Laravel, JavaScript, Rails, Linux, Docker, WordPress and the tech industry. Follow me on Twitter @tylerlwsmith
Empathy.
While trying to put yourself in the shoes of users is a good thing, boldly proclaiming that you have empathy for users doesn't necessarily mean that you do.
It often feels like when the empathy card is invoked in technical arguments, the subtext is "I care about my users and you don't." It especially feels this way when talking about performance.
There are contexts where page load speed and minimal battery usage is important to users. There are also contexts where the velocity in which you can add features is the only thing that matters. Rather than discussing empathy as a nebulous concept, it may be more fruitful to discuss what our users need from a piece of software, and be mindful that users of other software may need something entirely different.
Empathy really boils down to the principle Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood
Sometimes the key thing to understand is that page load speed and battery usage matters a lot as you pointed out. Sometimes it's completely different though.
Empathy is powerful but it is neither good or bad. I have female friends who were in a toxic relationship, and they were fucked up because the dude was good at using empathy to manipulate them.
I think the problem with empathy is that HR-speak in english speaking countries invented this incredibly stupid term of "soft skills" and put it into it. One more thing where you can evaluate people between 1 and 10. I'm being sarcastic.
Empathy is neither soft nor a skill.
It's very hard, and it's not a skill, it's something that you do or it's a personnality trait.
After reading your comment I'm realizing "empathy" has even more to unpack than I thought. You've got a lot of great points in there.
There are great books on the subject, but as I pointed out in this article, I stumbled on them while learning how to dance
Can beginners make a simple but meaningful contribution? Some unconventional advice #hacktoberfest
Jean-Michel Fayard 🇫🇷🇩🇪🇬🇧🇪🇸🇨🇴 ・ Oct 1 ・ 7 min read