Empathising and Systemizing: What is the Fundamental Difference?

[einbert]

So I am reading this interesting book I picked up the other day called "The Essential Difference". It is about the differences between the male brain/thought process and the female brain/thought process (on average of course).

I have hit a pretty big roadblock in my understanding of its contents, and I was hoping maybe some of you guys could point me in the right direction. The main theme of the book is that males tend to be stronger at "systemizing", that is understanding systems, while females tend to be stronger at "emphasizing", which involves understanding human emotions.

A system is described as something that functions while receiving inputs and outputs. It could be a business, a piece of music, a sports league, limit hold em, internet forums, a million other things. But I believe the defining aspect of a "system" is that when given a set of inputs, the same output is always produced. Someone can correct me on that if I'm wrong.

In the book, emphasizing it divided into two parts: the cognitive aspect and the reactive aspect. The cognitive aspect involves the receiving of input in the forms of nonverbal and verbal communication from other human beings in order to interpret their feelings and emotions, while the reactive aspect involves reacting appropriately (?) to that person's specific mental and emotional state (in order to achieve a specific desired result?).

Here is my big hurdle in understanding all this: How is an aptitude for "systemizing" fundamentally any different than an aptitude for "empathizing"? I just can't figure out how human beings, including all their thoughts and emotions and everything else, aren't systems themselves. If someone is very strong at interpreting communication from other human beings, and then reacting to them appropriately, how is that any different from my ability to interpret someone's hand range from the available information, and then react appropriately in a game of limit hold em? What is the core, fundamental difference?

Maybe I shouldn't post this at all until I finish reading the book, and it will become clear to me as I continue on in it. But maybe I will get some insight from you guys that isn't even in the book. Hopefully some good will come of it, and not much bad really can come from thinking deeply about these kinds of things right? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] And I wanted to have a dialogue with you guys, since I have unfortunately been unable to access the internet for a while.

Thanks for your thoughts, they are appreciated.