Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says empathy isn't a soft skill — it's actually 'the hardest skill we learn'

You guys just don't understand how hard it is to make yourself think of other humans as important. This takes practice and effort! I spend 10 minutes a day thinking of how other people might feel and it's exhausting. Anyway, the spreadsheet numbers are smaller than they used to be, so I'll just do a round of layoffs.

Empathy is not universal. You persuade yourself that somebody is miserable, annoying, weak, unpleasant, and you are not empathetic to them anymore.

Well, at least I feel myself to be weird for not doing that and preventing myself from doing that.

Not excusing it, but I'd say it's very easy to feel disconnected from others when you're in a privileged position of power.

Everyone else becomes "them", and you lose track of what "normal" or "average" experiences are like, because you tend to live within a very different space to others, and tend only associate with people with similar privilege levels.

I remember visiting my country's Parliament building, and within about 15 minutes having this weird sense of disconnection due to the incredibly different beautiful and privileged environment. Everywhere were massive pieces of art, beautiful marble inlays, everything was clean and well ordered, great big wide open spaces, beautifully carved wooden chairs in dining areas etc.

I remember thinking no wonder politicians tend to be labelled disconnected and removed from the concerns of the average citizen. If I was working in that building 8-12 hours a day, 4-6 days a week, 40+ weeks a year, I'd find it hard to remain grounded and to also remind myself that what I was experiencing was something less than 5% of the population might experience, rather than being the "norm" or standard for the majority of the population.