Is there a cognitive empathy “module”?

Also: Ask me anything!

Hi! This week I’m trying a new experiment. I’m inviting you to submit questions and comments and vowing to respond to them next week in an audio monologue (and maybe render some monologue excerpts in print, assuming any are coherent). The questions and comments can be about anything at all—they can even be probing personal queries, like “What’s your horoscope sign?”—but I hope some of them will be about the stretch of text below.

That stretch is the beginning of what could be the opening of a chapter in my book on cognitive empathy—chapter 2 or 3, I’m guessing. It’s not very long, and that’s partly because I want to pause for feedback before continuing the chapter (and partly, of course, because “not very long” = “less work”).

So feel free to say/ask anything at all that comes to mind, even if it’s harsh; candid feedback is the most valuable kind. OK, here goes: