Natural Empathy

Over the past few months, partially via the altMBA and partially on my own, I’ve been studying the idea of empathy. Books like Overcoming Bias and Caste have been excellent as I’ve dug into this.

Much of it comes back to the idea of sonder, or appreciating that you’re not the main character in the world. In practice, it means to just try to be a good human.

On social media, it’s pretty easy to see people that intentionally seek out empathy, and those that don’t. Of those that don’t, which we’re all guilty of from time to time, it’s sad to see those that simply don’t want to try. If you can see the perspective of another person, even if you don’t agree with their viewpoint, it goes miles toward mutual understanding and respect.

I personally have a long way to go in this regard too, but hopefully I’m improving every day. If you have suggestions for other books that could be of value, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Originally published at https://www.mickmel.com on March 10, 2021.