GearUp.md

I feel like I've always been a fairly empathetic person. It has helped me to be more patient and understanding of people who come from a different walk of life than I do. Being empathetic in a field like development is important because we are designing platforms that will be used by, possibly, many different kinds of people. If we aren't listening to and trying to understand our customer or target audience, we cannot be successful. It's the same for our teammates; we all should try to understand why someone feels or thinks the way they do and it'll help us communicate with each other more effectively, increasing productivity. In the Navy, being empathetic helped me in quite a few situations, including PT and people being "broken" or unable to fully participate. A lot of people were quick to call "lazy" without even considering the person's history or medical issues. It's difficult for me to be empathetic when the person I'm trying to better understand is always negative and shows no effort to improve their attitude.