Your Emotional API How to be a better developer by being a better human ⚡ Lightning Version ⚡ …and now for something completely different. I’m here to talk about emotions, and how they can affect you as a developer.

John Sawers CTO and Co-Founder at Data Simply Architect at Privia Health @emotionalAPI @johnksawers.com http://emotionalapi.com I’m John Sawers I’m the CTO and Co-founder of Data Simply And the Architect at Privia Health This is where to find me online.

Emotions just make so much sense to me —No One Ever Given the fact that almost no one understands emotions, I want see what we can learn by modeling our emotional system as an API

@emotionalAPI post ‘/feels/anger’ do end post ‘/feels/sadness’ do end post ‘/feels/fear’ do end Endpoints post ‘/feels/shame’ do end post ‘/feels/joy’ do end post ‘/feels/love’ do end Here are our core API endpoints. They handle all our basic emotions.

@emotionalAPI It’s not that simple delete /job/1, 301: /feels/sadness put /events/mother/visit, 301: /feels/anger put /baby/new, 301: /feels/fear post /people/co-worker/comments/asshole, 301: /feels/anger get /people/boss/compliment, 301: /feels/pride There are hundreds or thousands of aliases that redirect to those core endpoints Things like losing a job, or having a baby can really hit you massively.

@emotionalAPI It’s not even that simple delete /job/:id 100.times do Thread.new(http.post(‘/feels/fear’) end 20.times do Thread.new(http.post(‘/feels/sadness’) end end Method bodies can be complex and trigger massive traffic to that core API as well. And there’s some bad news.

The Bad News: It’s a public API Any person, event or situation can call any of these endpoints at any time.

The Good News: You have complete control over implementation How you react to a feeling is up to you. But it takes work to undo habitual responses. First, let’s talk about how your feeling server works in general.

@emotionalAPI How Your Feeling Server Works Content-Type: feels Content-Length: ∞ (hint, not very well) When one of the endpoints is hit, the download starts, but the server is flaky and cannot tell the size of the payload. As a feeling is happening to you, it seems like it will go on forever.

When The Big Feels Hit Many of us have had the experience when a big feel comes in, that if we let it out, it will never stop. If I express this anger, I will never stop yelling. If I express this sadness, I will never stop crying. But here’s the thing

@emotionalAPI 20 Minutes Max Experts and my own experience have shown that feelings only last 20 minutes. If you express the feeling at 100% intensity it’ll be gone in 20 mins or less.

@emotionalAPI You don’t have to, But you can control where and when you express your feelings So, when do we do this ‘100% expression’ ? We get to decide, because we have a queue

@emotionalAPI http.get(‘/feels/anger’).perform_later Our delayed_job system, allows us to choose the right time and place.

@emotionalAPI Safe Space • Alone in your house • In the wilderness • With a safe person We can do it alone or with a supportive partner. So, what does expressing these feelings look like? I’ll give you a few examples, but there’s much more to it.

@emotionalAPI Anger • Throw a fit • Move your body • Say the words you’re dying to say: • “I feel so angry that…” Let’s start with anger, which is usually the easiest to start with. Toddlers are brilliant at this - they just lay down and kick and scream and cry. They’re done in 5 minutes. Use your voice and body to get the energy of it out of your body. To get started try saying “I feel so angry about…”

@emotionalAPI Fear • Shudder and shake • Cry • Say the words you’re dying to say: • “I feel so afraid that…” Again, physical movement is key, but different. Even if nobody is with you, say the words that describe the feeling

@emotionalAPI One thing is for sure You will feel incredibly stupid when you first try any of these things. You will feel like a Class A idiot when you start doing these things. Because we’re often so go good at avoiding feelings, the trick is to start doing those actions before you feel it. But keep going and it’ll come.

@emotionalAPI That sounds really messy Why bother with all of this?

@emotionalAPI Cognitive Problems • Poorer Executive Function • Poorer Short Term Memory • Lower ability to handle stress Unprocessed feelings make us feel powerless, and feeling powerless affects our thinking. When we handle feelings well we feel powerful, and we reverse these deficits.

@emotionalAPI Social Benefits • Empathy! • Express your ideas better, without baggage • Help others with their emotional challenges By making your self better at feels, you make everyone around you better at it. If you know your own feelings, you’ll be able to understand other’s feelings You can choose how your own feelings affect your life and the lives of others. You can choose constructive responses, not habitual ones.

Better Developer? What do I mean by better developer? If you’re emotional state isn’t affecting your cognition If you’re not distracted by difficult family situations If you can handle problematic team mates If you can banish your impostor syndrome If you can handle hiring, firing and job interviews, giving talks You will be a better developer and a better team mate

Better Human? What do I mean by better human? What I mean by this is that you become better at being a human. You’re going to have emotions, you cannot avoid it. So why not get better at it? When you do - everything gets better.

@emotionalAPI Thank You I’m just scratching the surface of all of this • Mailing List: http://emotionalapi.com • Twitter: @emotionalAPI • Talk to me in the hall!

@emotionalAPI I’ll be giving the full version of this talk at the Abstractions conference. August 18-20 in Pittsburgh PA http://abstractions.io