Empathy Maketh an Engineer

The journey towards becoming a better developer involves in more than just coding. Empathy is the most important skill that any developer should practice. In this talk we will see as a developer how to write code empathetically and how empathy will help you to become a better software craftsman. By the end of the talk, audience will know how to practice empathy, build great softwares and great teams empathetically.

Transcript

1. EMPATHY MAKETH AN ENGINEER DEVCONF 2018
3. SOFTWARE CONSULTANT, TARKA LABS NARENDRAN @DUDEWHOCODE WWW.DUDEWHO.CODES
4. EMPATHY
5. IS IT FEELING SORRY FOR OTHERS ?
6. IS IT STANDING IN SOMEONE’S SHOES?
7. THEN WHAT IS EMPATHY?
12. EMPATHY?
13. IT’S FEELING WHAT THEY FEEL + MAKING CONNECTION WITH THEM
14. WHY PRACTICE EMPATHY(IN SOFTWARE)?
15. SOFTWARE IS BUILT BY HUMANS,
16. SOFTWARE IS BUILT BY HUMANS, WITH HUMANS,
17. SOFTWARE IS BUILT BY HUMANS, WITH HUMANS, AND FOR HUMANS. April Wensel (compassionate- coding)
18. YOU TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED IF YOU PRACTICE EMPATHY,
19. YOU WILL MORE CLEARLY UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT YOU CREATE IN OTHERS WITH YOUR WORDS AND ACTIONS. ONCE YOU START TREATING OTHERS WELL,
20. YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THE UNSPOKEN PARTS OF YOUR COMMUNICATION WITH OTHERS ONCE YOU UNDERSTAND THE YOUR IMPACT ON OTHERS,
21. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO MORE ACCURATELY PREDICT THE ACTIONS AND REACTIONS OF PEOPLE YOU INTERACT WITH ALSO,
22. YOU WILL MORE EFFECTIVELY CONVINCE OTHERS OF YOUR POINT OF VIEW ONCE YOU HAVE A BETTER COMMUNICATION,
23. YOU WILL DELIVER WHAT OTHERS EXPECT FROM YOU ONCE YOU ARE ABLE TO CONVINCE PEOPLE,
24. HOW TO PRACTICE EMPATHY?
25. SOME PEOPLE ARE NATURALLY EMPATHETIC
26. BUT YOU CAN ALTER YOUR GENES
27. FEW STEPS TO PRACTICE EMPATHY
28. 1. LISTEN HOW TO PRACTICE EMPATHY
29. 2. FIND THE DEEPEST “WHY” HOW TO PRACTICE EMPATHY
30. MY CLIENT ASKS ME TO BUILD A MICRO SERVICE USING JAVA
31. THE CLIENT ASKS ME TO BUILD A MICRO SERVICE USING JAVA* * This example is purely for illustration purpose. I do not intend to hurt the sentiments of any individual, community, sect or religion
32. 3. BE VULNERABLE HOW TO PRACTICE EMPATHY
33. 4. RESPECT OTHERS TIME HOW TO PRACTICE EMPATHY
34. BE DELIBERATE
35. EMPATHY DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT
36. REQUIREMENTS
37. WHERE IS EMPATHY IN CODE? UNDERSTANDING USERS ▸ Your users WILL NOT be in the environment and mindset in which you develop software. ▸ Software is getting personal day by day. The software you create end up very close to the user. ▸ You have to empathise the user to build usable software
38. ARCHITECTURE DESIGN
39. WHERE IS EMPATHY IN CODE? BE RIGHTEOUS ▸ Don’t bring in shiny components into architecture just because everyone does ▸ Make the right tradeoffs ▸ Everyone in the team should understand the architecture, no matter junior or senior
40. DEVELOPMENT
41. WHERE IS EMPATHY IN CODE? LET YOUR CODE SPEAK ▸ Communicate through code ▸ Add comments to the section that needs second pass for understanding ▸ If you open your own code after a year. You shouldn’t go “WTF”
42. WATCH YOUR TOXIC TONE
43. DON’T DO C.Y.A.E
44. DON’T DO COVER YOUR ASS ENGINEERING
45. STILL NOT CONVINCED?
46. THE FINAL NUDGE
47. BETTER PROGRAMMER EMPATHY MAKES YOU A
48. ADMIRE YOU EMPATHY MAKES PEOPLE TO
49. STRENGTH EMPATHY GIVES YOU
50. STRONGER + BETTER + ADMIRED = ?
51. SUPER HERO EMPATHY MAKES YOU A
53. HALF OF THE PROBLEMS IN SOFTWARE CAN BE SOLVED IF PEOPLE ARE EMPATHETIC TO EACH OTHER. REST WE CAN USE A CUTTING EDGE TECH.
54. REFERENCES/CREDITS ▸ Empathy gives you super powers, keynote by Matt Stauffer (it’s too good to ignore:)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMFjO2szDnk ▸ Empathy, short video by Brené Brown
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw ▸ All the insightful blogs from April Wensel
 https://compassionatecoding.com/blog ▸ Compassion and meaning of empathy, TED talk by Joan Halifax
 https://www.ted.com/talks/joan_halifax#t-584914 ▸ Your most important skill: Empathy - Chad Fowler
 http://chadfowler.com/2014/01/19/empathy.html ▸ All the beautiful images are taken from www.unsplash.com
55. @DUDEWHOCODE NAREN WWW.DUDEWHO.CODES/TALKS