4 ms·

Interesting. I have been doing this for decades but I absolutely started to get more intentional and in depth during the pandemic. I’ve never been good in soci

Interesting. I have been doing this for decades but I absolutely started to get more intentional and in depth during the pandemic. I’ve never been good in social situations and I generally avoid them, and I used this kind of day dreaming to play out various scenarios like a decision tree to “workshop” how to interact with specific people, and it has served me well for practical purposes, but I started using it more for “fun” since the pandemic.

Eelongate 5y ago
> day dreaming to play out various scenarios like a decision tree to “workshop” how to interact with specific people Seems like a reinvention of empathy.
- codezero 5y ago
  Curious how you see it that way. I am a pretty empathetic person (maybe less so to strangers than friends), but I have limited (mostly by choice) filters, so sometimes I just want to make sure I’m not going to accidentally cross any boundaries. I think of it more like rehearsing lines for a play, but making tweaks to fit the intended scene.
  - Eelongate 5y ago
    To me, empathy is about trying to understand the way other people think or feel so you can anticipate how they might respond to things. In forming mental models of other people and running through simulated scenarios with those mental models to explore possible outcomes, I think you're engaging in a form of empathy. > I am a pretty empathetic person (maybe less so to strangers than friends), I feel the same, strongly so in fact. I think the accuracy of the mental models used for empathizing depends on experience; experience with that specific person and one's own life experiences in general. The better I know a person, the more accurate my mental model of their behavior and feelings will be. General experience socializing with other people also enhances empathy since that experience enables somebody to create more accurate models of how people in general think or feel about things. Further, personal experiences allow somebody to better empathize with people who have similar experiences.
    - codezero 5y ago
      Makes sense, thanks for elaborating!

Eelongate 5y ago

> day dreaming to play out various scenarios like a decision tree to “workshop” how to interact with specific people Seems like a reinvention of empathy.

codezero 5y ago
Curious how you see it that way. I am a pretty empathetic person (maybe less so to strangers than friends), but I have limited (mostly by choice) filters, so sometimes I just want to make sure I’m not going to accidentally cross any boundaries. I think of it more like rehearsing lines for a play, but making tweaks to fit the intended scene.
- Eelongate 5y ago
  To me, empathy is about trying to understand the way other people think or feel so you can anticipate how they might respond to things. In forming mental models of other people and running through simulated scenarios with those mental models to explore possible outcomes, I think you're engaging in a form of empathy. > I am a pretty empathetic person (maybe less so to strangers than friends), I feel the same, strongly so in fact. I think the accuracy of the mental models used for empathizing depends on experience; experience with that specific person and one's own life experiences in general. The better I know a person, the more accurate my mental model of their behavior and feelings will be. General experience socializing with other people also enhances empathy since that experience enables somebody to create more accurate models of how people in general think or feel about things. Further, personal experiences allow somebody to better empathize with people who have similar experiences.
  - codezero 5y ago
    Makes sense, thanks for elaborating!