Mx. Luna Corbden 🐸

@YakyuNightOwl @paninid There's a word I made up that I'd really like to have catch on.

"Extrospection." The opposite of "introspection," it is the act of successfully becoming aware of what someone else is thinking or feeling, or what their worldview, rationale, or values are. It can be conjugated into various other forms, including the verb: extrospect.

I believe words have the power to change thought, and therefore, change society. This one would give people the realization that this is not a given. Know one automatically knows how others are motivated based only on how we ourselves are motivated. The biggest. most damaging mistakes in my life have been errors of extrospection. And as I have practiced it over recent year, and begun to understand people who think much differently than I do, I see media, entire fields of science (like psychology), political and liberation movements, make these mistakes as well.

May 26 at 10:34pmWeb
Show threadCoach Sankhavaram ®May 27

@corbden @YakyuNightOwl

Is #extrospection substantially different than reading the room, knowing what words to use, and applying them judiciously?

Show threadMx. Luna Corbden 🐸May 27

@paninid @YakyuNightOwl Those are all aspects of or results of good extrospection. I'd say reading the room is a more collective type of empathy, a vibe-check on a group rather than on an individual. And if you've correctly guessed another person's perspective or root reasoning, you'll be more likely to say the right thing to achieve your goals (which might not be beneficial to them — manipulators and sales people are extremely good at certain aspects of extrospection).

For example, one mistake I make in trying to be persuasive is I assume the other person shares my values and reasoning style — so I lead with what convinced me. Invariably that is not what will convince them, as I've learned. It's why I now try to practice asking questions instead of debating.

Similar words we already have include "perspective-taking," which is that effort of asking in order to better extrospect. "Empathy," of course, though it is usually limited to emotional understanding and it is limited in other ways as well.

And "theory of mind," which is exactly this concept, only it's hard to use in a sentence, and it is couched inside problematic ideas and science about "what's wrong with those weird autistic people?" Everyone has a bad theory of mind regarding anyone whose reasoning they don't truly understand. This is my attempt to broaden that concept.