That’s not quite fair. The tech industry has no empathy, regardless of geography. And it’s not fair to say “no empathy”, but so many social issues around technology stem from a lack of empathy. I’m no half-Betazoid Starfleet counselor, but in my view there are two kinds of empathy: proactive and reactive.

Reactive empathy is, for example, feeling sad when someone’s cat dies. It’s putting yourself in the shoes of someone who has experienced a Thing. Most functional humans (and yes, I’m including the tech sector here) have at least some amount of reactive empathy. Some more than others, of course, but it’s there.

Proactive empathy is harder. That’s imagining how someone else is going to experience a Thing. It requires more imagination. Even when you know you have to do it, it’s a hard skill to practice.

I touched on this a little bit in a post a few weeks ago, but there I framed it as a lack of ethics. I’m not convinced that’s fully the case. More often, issues are probably more correctly attributed to a lack of empathy. You know why you can’t add alt-text to GIFs in tweets? Because Silicon Valley has no empathy.

I was thinking about this again last week as I drove down to Indianapolis. I had to pass through the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy, which meant some very heavy downpours. Like a good citizen, I tried to report issues on Waze so that other drivers would have some warning. As it turns out, “tropical deluge” is not a weather option in Waze. Want to know how I can tell it was developed in the Valley?

It’s so easy to say “it works for me!” and then move on to the next thing. But that’s why it’s so important to bring in people who aren’t like you to help develop your product. Watch how others experience it and you’ll probably find all sorts of things you never considered.