Your Most Important Skill
Today’s text is about the definition of empathy and why it matters as a skill. It’s also about how that skill can be practiced and inculcated1. This is primarily a source that gives you information — facts and logic and ideas that inform your own thinking.
Empathy, you’ll see, is at the center of the highest profiles. It’s the first and most important skill listed. The title of today’s essay is, therefore, probably not a surprise: “Why Empathy Is Your Most Important Skill.”
The version of the essay you’ll read today is also an example of ramiform reading. Ramiform mean “branch-like,” and it can be applied to most articles online. Here’s the first paragraph of our article:
I’ve never considered myself a real programmer. I know at this point it’s probably silly to say, but I started my scholastic and professional life as a musician, and I’ve never quite recovered from the impostor syndrome that comes with making such a shift. One of the faux-self-deprecations I use to describe myself is: “I’m a people person who just happens to express this tendency through programming and technology projects.”
The link defines “imposter syndrome” for you. You don’t need to Google that term or guess at its meaning; the link does that work for you. It branches you off to another website to learn a bit more about the subject. The rest of the paragraph invites you to define unknown terms, too (“faux-self-deprecations” probably needs a definition), but the link is what makes the reading ramiform.
Most folks don’t click on the links in an online article. Most don’t even finish the article. You need to be different. When you encounter a link, click on it. Follow that branch for a bit, see what information it offers, and then return to the original text. Let your reading be ramiform, and you’ll strengthen your brain’s white matter.
More specifically, you’ll hone the skill of close reading. You’ll sharpen your assiduousness2. You’ll need to work together, which will bring collegiality into focus. In fact, most of the skills and traits in these profiles — and the profiles themselves — will be exercised over the next few days.
I will point out what is being developed as we go, which will bring clarity to the process. Most of that feedback will happen in person, but I want you to start asking questions in the comment section of this site — the space below this post, where you must use a social media account of some kind to talk to me. Fortunately, you have a Google+ account through our high school.
Make sure you keep these handouts nearby:
Remember that we use these profiles, skills, and traits all year – you aren’t expected to have internalized them yet. My hope is that you’ve read over them3; it will take time for you to see their universal application.
To load the article, click the image below:
Image via Vladgrin (Shutterstock).
If, for any reason, that doesn’t work, use this direct link:
Updates to this assignment will be posted here or on Google Classroom. Talk to me below, if you can’t find me in the sea of students in our classroom.
The key part of the definition of this word is its emphasis on repetition. You only develop this sort of skill through rigorous work. There are no shortcuts. ↩
Because it takes that specific kind of work ethic to push through ramiform reading. Again, there are no shortcuts. ↩
And not just because that was the assignment. It’s about repetition — about inculcating understanding over repeated use. Keep reading over these ideas, talking to me about them, and reflecting on what you learn. ↩