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> Second, the most valuable skill a programmer can have isn't technical, but rater social: empathy. couldn’t agree more! but the term you’re really looking fo
by techslave 7y ago
> Second, the most valuable skill a programmer can have isn't technical, but rater social: empathy.
couldn’t agree more!
but the term you’re really looking for is perhaps a strongly developed theory of mind. whereas empathy really is referring to emotional awareness.
the worst and also most annoying programmers i know, to a person, consistently fail to see other points of view. their way is the right way, period. they tend to actually be smart, and right about very many things in a small problem domain. i dare say their raw intelligence is a double edged sword.
- beernutz 7y agoMaybe empathy comes in when trying to frame criticism in a constructive way that the receiver will internalize and find helpful? In some cases, it might be better to ask them about reasoning around a particular bit of code than to offer alternatives right away. In others, a good idea or anecdote about something you found useful in that spot, might be better received. In my experience, there is a good amount of empathy (or emotional awareness) involved in offering advice that will be accepted in a constructive spirit, and not seen as an attack. After all, we ALL write bad code sometimes. A bit of code might seem like a good idea at the time, but could just be overly "clever" upon later inspection. A good review comment that does not point fingers seems like it would fall under the "empathy" umbrella.