Dear diary, you're the last good listener

"Sympathy (as is laid out by Adam Smith) requires you to set aside the instinct to orient the situation around yourself. You build a picture of the other person's experience and examine whether your judgement makes sense. Empathy, as we commonly use it in conversation (and research), often works differently. It looks inward, searching your own memories and experiences for something similar so you can translate that experience into terms you already know."

"A big distinction is that empathy stops growing the moment inward connection is made. Sympathy, on the other hand, asks if you understand rather than if you can relate. Big difference. Neither of these make for better or worse people. But I think it's important that only one of them encourages revision."

"The point of the Spectator Model is to help you abstract your level of understanding. From there, you're left with two decisions. 1. Are you sufficed with your current level of understanding? and 2. What would it take to go further in that understanding. And it's worth saying: You don't always need to push all the way to truth. Sometimes 'Awareness' is the right level."

Sympathy, as defined by Adam Smith, involves deliberately setting aside self-oriented instincts to build an understanding of another person's experience and examine whether your judgment is sound. Empathy, by contrast, searches inward for similar personal memories to translate unfamiliar experiences into known terms. While empathy creates immediate connection and feels satisfying, it ceases developing once that inward link is established. Sympathy encourages ongoing revision and deeper understanding through intentional effort. Smith's Impartial Spectator model describes how initial judgments form and how difficult revision becomes. This model helps abstract understanding levels, allowing deliberate decisions about whether current comprehension suffices or whether additional effort through conversation, meetings, or research is warranted.

Read at Medium