Compassionate Coding with April Wensel

​Are you compassionate? In this episode of Programming Leadership, Marcus and his guest, April Wensel discuss compassion in technology and how it affects people. April shares how to become more compassionate as individuals and how we can bring more compassion into our organizations. Dive in to learn about a more compassionate future.   Show Notes Compassion is about reducing suffering. @1:09​ Compassion is what's missing in technology. @1:22 Emotional intelligence ties into compassion. @4:36 We're all hardwired for cruelty and compassion- it's our choice which we choose as humans. @5:44 Everyone has the potential to practice compassion in daily life. @6:25 To practice compassion, you must have empathy. @7:48 Curiosity and inquiry are risks worth taking to show compassion. @8:23 The four pillars of being a compassionate coder are compassion with yourself, with your coding and non-coding coworkers, with users, and with society. @11:58 Organizations contribute to keeping uncompassionate patterns in place (higher pay and special treatment for coders for example). @18:01 Everybody has the capacity to develop compassion; it's about how we direct our energy, time, and effort. @21:29 Pausing, or taking a beat, to think is often the beginning of compassion. @25:20 You need to operate at human speeds rather than machine speeds to be compassionate. @26:53 Environments and working culture need to change in order to allow more compassion. @27:28 Burnout is an indicator that there's been a lack of compassion somewhere in the organization. @27:48 Compassion  is important in all relationships, especially with power dynamics. @28:53 Open up to build relationships and communicate to learn what others are thinking and actually going through, instead of making snap judgments. @32:48 Links: Sponsor: Gitprime.com Website: Compassionatecoding.com April’s Twitter: @AprilWensel  Compassionate Coding Twitter: @CompassionCode