
Why Empathy Is the Secret Sauce for Good Software Development - pntripathi9417
https://thenewstack.io/empathy-secret-sauce-good-software-development/
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rightbyte
Did that blog post say anything consistent I just got confused reading it? Why
is empathy not the secret sauce for building bridges or railroads? Is it
maybe?

Naming empathy as the most important thing for a project is not even correct
if you are doing homeless shelter charity work.

The biggest problems I've had in projects has always been of techical nature,
or people failing to understand problems of techical nature, not people
failing to feel with other people.

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smt88
> _The biggest problems I 've had in projects has always been of techical
> nature_

In my 15 years in web software development, my experience has been exactly the
opposite. In fact, all the technical problems came from people problems.

"Empathy" may be too narrow or too loaded a word, but I agree with the idea
here.

> _people failing to understand problems of techical nature_

You may be illustrating the problem yourself here, if you'll allow me to be a
bit presumptuous.

It is the technologist's job to prevent failures of understanding. Believing
that everyone else thinks/feels exactly the way you do is often how
misunderstandings happen.

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basurihn
There's been an odious trend "coaching" as an actual job title lately -
promoting cooperation and positive environments as if the acts of just
listening and inclusivity can make even incompetent technology teams better.

It can only make competent technologists and receptive junior technologists
who wish to learn better. Caring what the dead wood thinks is a recipe for an
inferior product.

Empathy is not a solution for turning dead wood into live wood. There's
negative value in making incompetents feel like equal members of a team.

~~~
doyoulikeworms
How can you turn dead wood into live wood?

~~~
basurihn
You compost it.

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erikig
I found this article enlightening but not as much as the feedback. The number
of developers that seem to recoil at the thought of empathy as part of their
job description and the reasons why they do is very interesting.

~~~
rightbyte
That's maybe because some believe that technical skills is the premiere
quality of a technical worker.

Empathy is maybe one of the most important skill for therapist.

Maybe some developers believe that this Empathy guy is another one of these
HR/Agil/Scrum Consultant making big money telling others how they should feel
better and be happier in an one hour session in a big hall to tick of a check
box in the employee education program when their main concern might be parking
space in the morning, some hard task at work or forced attrition etc.

