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I did a presentation once to a bunch of ex-McKinsey guys who had been brought in to run a for-profit university.
The subject: how impossible it was for their potential students to afford and manage the downstream costs of going back to school (e.g. childcare).
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The subject: how impossible it was for their potential students to afford and manage the downstream costs of going back to school (e.g. childcare).
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These were smart guys. Accomplished executives.
They truly had no appreciation for what life was really like for working people trying to pull themselves up though.
By the end, they were dead quiet. A bit embarrassed at how little they understood their students’ burdens.
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They truly had no appreciation for what life was really like for working people trying to pull themselves up though.
By the end, they were dead quiet. A bit embarrassed at how little they understood their students’ burdens.
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Society increasingly segregates the well-off from the struggling.
The media reduces the working class to monoliths represented by diner interview sound bites.
Combine those two and you get a dramatic shortage of insight and empathy in decisionmakers - and society overall.
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The media reduces the working class to monoliths represented by diner interview sound bites.
Combine those two and you get a dramatic shortage of insight and empathy in decisionmakers - and society overall.
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We don’t tell enough rich, detailed stories of ordinary Americans’ ordinary lives.
That dramatic insight gap can be closed - and doing so opens eyes and changes perspectives.
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That dramatic insight gap can be closed - and doing so opens eyes and changes perspectives.
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I thought of that long-ago presentation after seeing some of the comments about Warren’s college plan.
Until we truly illuminate the real lives of the disadvantaged, working poor and struggling, we’ll be fighting against an empathy deficit that only exposure helps close.
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Until we truly illuminate the real lives of the disadvantaged, working poor and struggling, we’ll be fighting against an empathy deficit that only exposure helps close.
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Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
The empathy gap is a societal barrier I find particularly vexing. Society is losing its humanity.
We’re losing touch with how others’ live and when you don’t know someone, it’s a lot easier to not care about them.
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The empathy gap is a societal barrier I find particularly vexing. Society is losing its humanity.
We’re losing touch with how others’ live and when you don’t know someone, it’s a lot easier to not care about them.
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