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Exercises in Empathy #1
You can try this at your own time and convenience. Do the following in a public space:
Do something to help someone you do not know.
There are only two conditions to this step:
- It has to be simple - things that do not impede on whatever you are doing at that moment
- It has to be small - normal, every day things that no one else but you and the person you helped will notice.
If you are wondering what would be a small and simple task that can help others, here are a couple of examples.
Sometimes senior citizens or handicapped individuals struggle to open heavy doors. If you just walked ahead of someone older or handicapped who is getting to the same door as you, wait a couple minutes until they get to the door and open the door for them.
From my own personal experiment: The building I live in has a locked access door to the parking garage. Sometimes I see someone unloading bags of groceries from their car as I walk to the access door. It may take me a couple more minutes, but I hold open the access door until they can go by with both their hands full of grocery bags.
Two minutes. Holding open doors. How easier can small and simple get? :-)
Now, ponder these questions:
- How did you come upon this situation? Did it require you to become more aware of your surroundings? Would you have noticed this before? Why or why not?
- What happened to the person you helped? Did they acknowledge you? Did you get any clues or visual cues of how your help affected them?
- What happened to you? How did their behavior affect your attitude and for how long?
Books: Wolf Totem
Wolf Totem a novel by by Jiang Rong
A stunning portrait of 1960s Mongolia as seen through the eyes of an empathetic Han ethnographer. This adventurous novel explores the divisions between agrarian/nomadic, warrior/peasant, and tradition/modernity.
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going,
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Step 2 - Beetroot Rice
Step 1 - Beetroot Rice
Our Biggest Android Annoyances and How to Fix Them [Annoyances] - http://pulsene.ws/NJ9l
Go to the people:
live with them, learn from them
love them
start with what they know
build with what they have.
But of the best leaders,
when the job is done,
the task accomplished,
the people will say:
“We have done it ourselves.”
Ten Questions Internet Executives Should Ask & Answer
Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker’s presentation at Web 2.0 summit
