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Seung Chan Lim

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Creativity, Innovation, and Change are Side Effects of Empathizing (Please read the description before replying)

There's a story that goes behind this question, so please watch the following video to understand what I mean by the idea. It will save us a lot of time sorting through the misunderstandings: http://vimeo.com/36629796

Also, here's an operational definition of "empathy" I'd like to use for this particular conversation:

"A capacity to viscerally imagine the current physical (or sometimes mental) state of an other, and as an extension their future actions. Who or what this other is depends solely on your own personal limits of empathy. It could be a person, an animal, a plant, an object, or a piece of script, or even your own body. An other is simply anything and everything we do not fully understand. So even ourselves are a subject of empathy as we often have to try and understand ourselves."

It is explained more in this video: http://vimeo.com/36629754

Related Talks:
Topics: craft creativity design empathy innovation learning life making psychology transformation
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    Jessica Figueroa

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    Feb 25 2012: Well many people like to create or make things to entertain themselves, not necessarily to impress others. We make things to please and feed our curiosity and discover how things work so then we can use it to our benefit. But yeah i agree with you, a lot of things that we make could be to empathize with others, but not all.
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      Seung Chan Lim

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      Feb 25 2012: Hi Jessica,

      I have a feeling that everyone is replying to the conversation right after reading the title, and not reading the rest. :)

      Perhaps your definition of empathizing is a bit different from mine. I could be wrong, so please correct me if that is indeed the case.

      In my definition, the act of empathizing is something that can be done with an other whom you have yet to empathize with, who we don't yet fully understand. That other can be a fellow human being, a piece of wood, an imaginary character in a play, or even your own body. Even ourselves are those we have to empathize with, because we don't fully understand who we are.

      Did you watch the video? I go more in depth with what I mean there: https://vimeo.com/36629796

      Let me know if I am making my thoughts clearer. I have much to learn from everyone such that I can do that.
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        Aaron Nielsen

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        Feb 28 2012: I didn't know at first that the person in the video was you =p for some reason, I just did not make that connection until now lol.

        But yeah! I suggest that you include *your* definition of 'empathy' in your introductory post, or else you will have to keep making this same reply to every post =/ Even after watching the video that you recommended in your OP, it was not clear that you were using a different definition of the word empathy than the standard one that most repliers (including myself) had in mind.

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