eoneill23 · April 23, 2019 02:42
diff --git a/EricONeill-Gear-Up-Pre-Work b/EricONeill-Gear-Up-Pre-Work
 1. Empathy plays an important role in my life, just like it does in everyone else's. Being empathetic has helped me communicate better and have better relationships in my professional and personal life. An example of this is at a previous job, my boss was unhappy with how I was going about a task that she had assigned me. After sitting down and talking with her and realizing why she was upset and what I could be doing better, I was able to go about the task in a different way and accomplish it to the standards that she was expecint.

 2. Empathy is a critical piece of building software. As outlined in the articles that were part of this assignment, getting out, interviewing people, and soliciting their feedback and insight helped bring to light things that designers never would have thought of. Looking at software from the viewpoint of the users and helps to build more accessible and usable software. For example, utilizing alt text when adding images to a webpage allows screenreaders to describe the image to users who are visually impaired.

 3. Empathy is important for a number of reasons. Not only does it allow developers to create more usable and accessible software, but it allows developers on a team to empathize with each other and work more harmoniously. Teams can be very diverse and contain people from many different walks of life and backgrounds. Being able to empathize and learn why someone acts and thinks the way the do helps teams work together more effectively.

 4. During a group project in college, one of the members of the group wasn't pulling their weight. During a group meeting, the members that were working hard brought this up with the member that wasn't working as hard. After discussing  and actively listening to each other, we learned that the group member who wasn't performing well had to work to pay for college and didn't have as much time to dedicate to school work as the rest of us. After learning that, we were able to shift around the workload for the project and complete it successfully.

 5. As in any human interaction, it can be difficult to have empathy in professional settings. The most difficult part of being empathetic in professional settings is to have empathy toward a colleague with whom I don't necessarily get along with. It can be easy to discount someone's thoughts and ideas based on the fact that you don't get along with them as well as other colleagues. But, like the readings said, empathy is a behavior that can be learned and trained, so it is important for me to remember to be empathetic towards people I don't necessarily get along with, even though it may be easier to discount them.
	1. Empathy plays an important role in my life, just like it does in everyone else's. Being empathetic has helped me communicate better and have better relationships in my professional and personal life. An example of this is at a previous job, my boss was unhappy with how I was going about a task that she had assigned me. After sitting down and talking with her and realizing why she was upset and what I could be doing better, I was able to go about the task in a different way and accomplish it to the standards that she was expecint.

	2. Empathy is a critical piece of building software. As outlined in the articles that were part of this assignment, getting out, interviewing people, and soliciting their feedback and insight helped bring to light things that designers never would have thought of. Looking at software from the viewpoint of the users and helps to build more accessible and usable software. For example, utilizing alt text when adding images to a webpage allows screenreaders to describe the image to users who are visually impaired.

	3. Empathy is important for a number of reasons. Not only does it allow developers to create more usable and accessible software, but it allows developers on a team to empathize with each other and work more harmoniously. Teams can be very diverse and contain people from many different walks of life and backgrounds. Being able to empathize and learn why someone acts and thinks the way the do helps teams work together more effectively.

	4. During a group project in college, one of the members of the group wasn't pulling their weight. During a group meeting, the members that were working hard brought this up with the member that wasn't working as hard. After discussing and actively listening to each other, we learned that the group member who wasn't performing well had to work to pay for college and didn't have as much time to dedicate to school work as the rest of us. After learning that, we were able to shift around the workload for the project and complete it successfully.

	5. As in any human interaction, it can be difficult to have empathy in professional settings. The most difficult part of being empathetic in professional settings is to have empathy toward a colleague with whom I don't necessarily get along with. It can be easy to discount someone's thoughts and ideas based on the fact that you don't get along with them as well as other colleagues. But, like the readings said, empathy is a behavior that can be learned and trained, so it is important for me to remember to be empathetic towards people I don't necessarily get along with, even though it may be easier to discount them.