I try to focus on commerce. But I can't be pure. My thinking about commerce often leads to other thoughts.
This is about a four step scale of human perception. My direct observations come from watching friends deal with dates, lovers, political discussions, the world around them and their lives in general.
I have a small number of friends who are, what I call, adult autistic. They don't perceive that other people have feelings and emotions. My friends in this category are able to function in the world because they were carefully taught how to function. They never knew the reasons for their precisely prescribed behavior. None of these people do well in business, though some have had stunning temporary success. Usually a wife or husband carries them through life.
The next group of friends, the largest group, are people who recognize that other people do have feelings and emotions. The second group, however, believes that most other people experience emotions the same way they do. “She must feel heartbroken, I know I would in her shoes.” This group of my friends has many romantics in it. They have abundant sympathy for others.
The third group, I call the novelists. This is a smaller group. They actually perceive emotions and feelings in other people that they themselves don't have. The novelist category includes people who are able to project different emotions into other people. I call these people novelists because they actually could write novels, and in many cases they love reading novels.
My forth category of friends is the smallest. I am proud to have people in this forth category who call me "a friend." I think I am one of them. The people in the forth category recognize that many other people have feelings and emotions that we never have, and couldn't possibly comprehend. Some people we can comprehend but alot of people have feelings and emotions that way beyond our comprehension.
For myself, I am comfortable with a world with large amounts of mutual incomprehension. I don't know how widely this comfort with the "other" extends to my friends.