Hacking your Emotional API: RailsConf

Hacking Your Emotional API
v2.11

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John Sawers
Senior Engineering Manager at Privia Health

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http://emotionalapi.com

he/his/him

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“Emotions just make so much sense to me”
— No One Ever

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• Cry

• Make a Scene

• Whine

• Yell
Don’t

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Do
•

•

•

•

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We’re on our own

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Endpoints
/feels/sadness Creates Sadness Response
POST
/feels/joy Creates Joy Response
POST
/feels/love Creates Love Response
POST
/feels/anger Creates Anger Response
POST
/feels/fear Creates Fear Response
POST
/feels/shame Creates Shame Response
POST

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Middleware
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

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Middleware Wetware
Inputs
delete /job/12


put /baby/new


/feels/sadness
 
/feels/anger
 
/feels/fear
 
/feels/anger
 
/feels/pride
Senses

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delete /job/12


put /baby/new


/feels/sadness
 
/feels/anger
 
/feels/fear
 
/feels/anger
 
/feels/pride
Senses

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Methods
delete '/job/:id'
 
100.times do
 
Thread.new(post('/feels/fear')
 
end
 
20.times do
 
Thread.new(post('/feels/sadness')
 
end
 
end

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A Public API
The Bad News

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Decomposability

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“But feelings are icky, and I don’t wanna”
— You, probably

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“Trying not to feel something
doesn’t work, and in some
cases even back
fi
res”
David Rock

Your Brain At Work[11]

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Coding Solo

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Cognitive Problems

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Cognitive Problems
• Poorer Executive Function [1]

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Cognitive Problems

• Poorer Short Term Memory [2]

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Cognitive Problems

• Poorer Short Term Memory [2]

• Lower ability to handle stress and cope with crisis [3]

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Cognitive & Health Bene
fi
ts
• “…not just in improved behavior but in measurable academic
achievement.”[5]

• “…measurable health advantage”[9]

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Coding Together

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Cognitive & Social Bene
fi
ts
• “Subjects made to feel powerful judged emotional expression
more accurately.”[7]

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fi
ts

• Better career advancement[8]

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fi
ts

• Better career advancement[8]

• Less self-centered [4]

• Empathy!

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"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
fi
red sooner or later."

- Rich Geldreich

https://richg42.blogspot.com/2017/09/things-learned-while-running-your-own.html

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Scenarios

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Degraded Cognition

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Advocate for Ideas

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Code Reviews

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Distraction

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Problematic Teammates

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Impostor Syndrome

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Interviewed, Hired, Fired

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Manage & Mentor

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http://frontside.io/
Senior
Software
Developer

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Toolkit

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🙂 Level 1: Conceptual Tools

😯 Level 2: On Your Own

😰 Level 3: With Someone Else

😱 Level 4: With a Group

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🙂 Level 1
Conceptual Tools

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You Control The Implementation

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You can control where and
when you express your feelings
(But you don’t have to)

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get('/feels/anger').perform_later

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They Don’t Mean Anything

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Fear of Loss of Control

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Feelings are Enumerable, not
Boolean
Anger
Disgust
Shame

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There Is No Should

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Emotional Debt

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“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]

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😯 Level 2
On Your Own

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Move Your Body

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• Dance

• Sing

• Exercise

• Yoga

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Rubber

Duck

Debugging

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“…consciously recognizing
the emotions reduced their
impact.”
David Rock

Your Brain At Work[10]

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Yup, talking

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Logging

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The Feel Wheel[12]

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“I feel” vs. “I am”

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Emotional

Retro

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😰 Level 3
With Another Person

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Again, Talking

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Feel
fi
rst

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Bring In A Consultant

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I always liked
this image

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😱 Level 4
With A Group

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How did I get here?
“…an intensive 20-hr Weekend Retreat in which you will
explore your erroneous belief systems, learn to
appropriately express emotions in a manner that heals…”
Purpose • Passion • Peace

http://aliceamos.me/p3retreat/

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GET /feels/

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Me

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GET '/events/something/trivial'
POST ‘/feels/anger'

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Do

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Safe Space

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Throw A Fit

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GET /feels/

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delete /v5/parents/marriage
 
 
post /v6/parents/:dad_id/set_emotional_distance/1000
 
 
post /v8/parents/:dad_id/diseases/cancer
 
 
delete /v17/parents/:dad_id

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/v5
delete /v5/parents/marriage do
 
20.times.do {
 
Thread.new(get('/feels/fear'))
 
Thread.new(get('/feels/sadness'))
 
Thread.new(get('/feels/blame'))
 
}
 
delete('/feels/self_worth')
 
end

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/v8
post /v8/parents/:dad_id/diseases/cancer do
 
20.times.do {
 
Thread.new(delete('/v5/parents/marriage'))
 
Thread.new(get('/feels/fear'))
 
 
}
 
end

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/v17
def /v17/parents/:dad_id do
 
1000.times.do {
 
Thread.new(post('/v8/parents/:dad_id/diseases/cancer'))
 
 
Thread.new(get('/feels/anger'))
 
 
}
 
end

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Narrator: It did not blow over

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Stack Trace
NoMethodError - unde
fi
ned method `paternal_approval’ for BossClass:

/me/feels/panic.rb:9:in `initialize'

/me/feels/love/daddy:14:in `none_for_you’

/me/feels/fear/mistake/guaranteed_to_be_
fi
red:21:in `realize_mistake’

/me/events/releases/prod/bug_count/metrics.rb:39:in `count_bugs’

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“Crying doesn’t indicate you
are weak, since birth it has
always been a sign to indicate
you are alive”
— attributed to Charlotte Brontë

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/v17
 
1000.times.do {
 
 
 
 
 
}
 
end

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Diff
 
1000.times.do {

500.times.do {
 
 
 
 
 
}
 
end

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Diff
get /me/events/releases/prod/bugs/count_high do
 
Thread.new(get('/feels/unloved'))
 
Thread.new(get('/feels/panic'))
 
puts 'oops'
 
fi
x_it
 
move_on
 
end

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Baggage

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The Ultimate Goal

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Soft Skills

Super Hard Skills

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Best Practices

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Pick One Thing

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DEEP BREATH

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Thank You So Much
https://emotionalapi.com/after-the-talk/
For more information, references,
links, workshops, feel wheels,
slides and videos, go to:

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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 signi
fi
cantly 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

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Hacking your Emotional API: RailsConf

Hacking your Emotional API: RailsConf

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