We often mis-interpret how other people present.

I felt privileged to have this conversation with Matthew Sobkowski a member of my development team.

Matt was very open about his experience - Matt studied psychology and was in med school. I also considered studying medicine. I could relate to a lot to his feelings - I too would have found medicine difficult to practice.

Open

Like Matt I think when I was younger (well a few years younger to be honest) I too found it tiring being around large numbers of people socially. I didn’t personally love group work when I was younger.

Matt is someone who people could easily mistake for not being interested in conversations - see attribution error. For instance in the video when then team gave feedback on our careers page.

Playing the conversation again I was impressed with how Matt chooses not to judge people on a first meeting but takes his time to access whether or not he can trust people.

I liked his approach of clearing his mind metaphorically looking at problems using a white board.