Empathy in driving

Yesterday I drove to my friend’s house for a gathering, during the intersection of I485 & I90, a car speeded up, passed me and then merged in my lane without turn lighting. I was frustrated with enough rude drivers on road, so I started blaiming the driver with my wife, “I just can’t understand why there is people acting like this, pass one car and merge into the lane, think about the effort and gain, how stupid they are to make that choice…” I paused, yes, why? maybe they were not rude nor stupid, but instead, they are new bees on this intersection and in a hurry situation so that when they passed they realized it’s a single lane to merge back.

I don’t know the fact, but understanding others position in a rationale sense makes me feel pretty good later. The anger from myself wasn’t that someone’s rude behavior, was that someone’s rude position.

This story linked to the empathy discussion I had with a friend, he suggested that empthay is to explore and understand others’ difficulties and constraints, that’s a great definition. Before the conversation, I treated empathy as no ego, focusing on things instead of attitudes. Dictionary says “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another”.

Now link the two together, empathy is not only to understand others, but it also helps understanding self at the end.

06/29/2022

Recently came over a company’s values, which tells We value compassion as well as intelligence., ref.

I was curious on what does compassion really mean, as I don’t really see it much. Here is one I felt deeply related to this article:

Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related. While empathy refers more generally to our ability to take the perspective of and feel the emotions of another person, compassion is when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to help.