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.
I can identify with this post. Empathy is something I really want to have more of. But it’s not easy when you’re starting from near zero!
Recent reading that steps into the Emotional Intelligence / Empathy area include:
Necessary Endings, but Henry Cloud
How to Have Impossible Conversations, Peter Boghossian
How God Changes Your Brain, Andrew Newberg (Note: this is NOT a religious book!)
Slightly different, but somewhat related, is the idea of Validation. I highly recommend:
I Hear YOU, by Michael S. Sorensen
Tony — That’s a great list! Thanks so much for sharing. I’ll check those out.