Hacking Your Emotional API 2.6.1 - RubyConf Australia

An abridged version of my main 'Hacking Your Emotional API' talk from RubyConf AU

Being a good developer isn't just about slinging code; we're part of a community. Interacting with others in a community means feelings are involved.
But feelings are messy and uncomfortable, so why can't you just ignore them? Because emotional skills are critical for working well on a team, and for writing code every day.
In this talk you’ll learn how emotions are affecting you by modeling them as an API and looking at the code.

Transcript

1. Hacking Your Emotional APIv3.0
2. @emotionalAPI John Sawers Founder and CTO of Data Simply Senior Developer at Privia Health @emotionalapi @johnksawers http://emotionalapi.com he/his/him
3. “Emotions just make so much sense to me” — No One Ever
4. @emotionalAPI • Cry • Make a Scene • Whine • Yell Don’t
5. @emotionalAPI Do • • • •
6. @emotionalAPI We’re on our own
7. Endpoints @emotionalAPI
8. Middleware @emotionalAPI delete /job/12 put /events/mother/visit put /baby/new post /people/co-worker/insult get /people/boss/compliment /feels/sadness
 /feels/anger
 /feels/fear
 /feels/anger
 /feels/pride Senses Wetware Inputs
9. Middleware @emotionalAPI delete /job/12 put /events/mother/visit put /baby/new post /people/co-worker/insult get /people/boss/compliment /feels/love
 /feels/anger
 /feels/fear
 /feels/shame
 /feels/pride Senses Wetware Inputs
10. Methods delete '/job/:id'
 100.times do
 Thread.new(post('/feels/fear')
 end
 20.times do
 Thread.new(post('/feels/sadness')
 end
 end @emotionalAPI
11. @emotionalAPI A Public API The Bad News
12. Decomposability @emotionalAPI
13. “But feelings are icky, and I don’t wanna” — You, probably
14. “Trying not to feel something doesn’t work, and in some cases even backfires” David Rock Your Brain At Work[11]
15. @emotionalAPI Coding Solo
16. @emotionalAPI Cognitive Problems
17. @emotionalAPI Cognitive Problems • Poorer Executive Function [1]
18. @emotionalAPI Cognitive Problems • Poorer Executive Function [1] • Poorer Short Term Memory [2]
19. @emotionalAPI Cognitive Problems • Poorer Executive Function [1] • Poorer Short Term Memory [2] • Lower ability to handle stress and cope with crisis [3]
20. @emotionalAPI Cognitive & Health Benefits • “…not just in improved behavior but in measurable academic achievement.”[5] • “…measurable health advantage”[9]
21. @emotionalAPI Coding Together
22. @emotionalAPI Cognitive & Social Benefits • “Subjects made to feel powerful judged emotional expression more accurately.”[7]
23. @emotionalAPI Cognitive & Social Benefits • “Subjects made to feel powerful judged emotional expression more accurately.”[7] • Better career advancement[8]
24. @emotionalAPI Cognitive & Social Benefits • “Subjects made to feel powerful judged emotional expression more accurately.”[7] • Better career advancement[8] • Less self-centered [4] • Empathy!
25. @emotionalAPI "It wasn't enough to merely be a good engineer at Valve. If you were a good engineer with zero communication skills your chances at surviving and thriving when I was there were pretty low. If you acted like an asshole and didn't have many friends it didn't matter how good you were or how awesome your accomplishments were. People like this would be fired sooner or later." - Rich Geldreich https://richg42.blogspot.com/2017/09/things-learned-while-running-your-own.html
26. Toolkit
27. @emotionalAPI Level 1: Conceptual Tools Level 2: On Your Own Level 3: With Someone Else Level 4: With a Group
28. @emotionalAPI Level 1 Conceptual Tools
29. @emotionalAPI You Control The Implementation
30. @emotionalAPI You can control where and when you express your feelings (But you don’t have to)
31. @emotionalAPI get('/feels/anger').perform_later
32. @emotionalAPI They Don’t Mean Anything
33. @emotionalAPI Fear of Loss of Control
34. @emotionalAPI Feelings are Enumerable, not Boolean Anger Disgust Shame
35. @emotionalAPI There Is No Should
36. @emotionalAPI Emotional Debt
37. @emotionalAPI “Even if it feels bad, it’s ok to let it feel bad. Eventually you’ll stop feeling bad because feelings just don’t last very long” Amy Cuddy Presence[13]
38. @emotionalAPI Level 2 On Your Own
39. @emotionalAPI Rubber Duck Debugging
40. @emotionalAPI “…consciously recognizing the emotions reduced their impact.” David Rock Your Brain At Work[10]
41. @emotionalAPI Yup, talking
42. @emotionalAPI The Feel Wheel[12]
43. @emotionalAPI Emotional Retro
44. @emotionalAPI Level 3 With Another Person Level 4 With A Group
45. @emotionalAPI The Ultimate Goal
46. Soft Skills Super Hard Skills
47. @emotionalAPI Best Practices
48. @emotionalAPI Pick One Thing
49. @emotionalAPI Why am I talking about this?
50. @emotionalAPI Thank You So Much Slides: https://speakerdeck.com/johnksawers/hacking-your-emotional-api-v2-dot-6-oscon Videos: http://emotionalapi.com Twitter: @emotionalAPI Come get a feel wheel!
51. @emotionalAPI References [1],[2] “…a lack of power impairs our cognitive function.’ Amy Cuddy, Presence 119 [3] “In fact, people who have a high sense of personal control…cope significantly better in crisis…because their executive functions are intact” Amy Cuddy, Presence, 136 [4] “Powerlessness makes us self-absorbed” Amy Cuddy, Presence 121 [5] “Helping children improve their self-awareness and confidence, manage their disturbing emotional impulses and increase their empathy pays off not just in improved behavior but in measurable academic achievement.” — Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence xi [6] “The [people who feel] powerful process information more abstractly, integrating information to extract the gist, detecting patterns and relationships” Smith, P.K., Dijkterhuis, A, & Wigbuldus, D.H. Psychology Science, 19, 1258-1259 [7] “Subjects made to feel powerful judged emotional expression more accurately.” Amy Cuddy, Presence 127 [8] “…having high leadership potential were far stronger in EI competencies…” Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence xiii [9] “Those who can mange their emotional lives with more calm and self-awareness … have … distinct and measurable health advantage … confirmed by many studies” Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence xi [10] “…when they were asked to name the emotion, the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activated and reduced the emotional amygdala reactivity. In other words, consciously recognizing the emotions reduced their impact.” David Rock, Your Brain At Work 127 [11] Gross found that people who tried to suppress a negative emotional experience failed to do so. While they thought they looked fine outwardly, inwardly their limbic system was just as aroused as without suppression. Trying not to feel something doesn’t work, and in some cases even backfires. David Rock, Your Brain At Work 119 [12] The Feeling Wheel http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/036215378201200411