The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Tech: A Path to Building Empathy and Creating a More Peaceful World

It's how they're trying to assert their dominance, I don't know what it is, but I can think about these possibilities to help build empathy. I can proceed calmly so what are my options? Yeah, I could just like slam drinks right, but I try to avoid that I do sometimes tap but not in an annoying way like more and just like, you know I'm scared way, but but again, I can't control how it's how its interpreted, but maybe I can change lanes maybe I could get off I could actually get off them at the highway take an exit and then maybe you know try again and hope for the best. There are things I could do but what I'm not gonna do is get angry And I'm not going to you know, try to get behind them and then Hoggart or you know, flash my brides or something.

I'm gonna do something calmly. So in your situation see you. You know, what were you meeting? No, what were you meeting? And what was the other person needing if no one else was involved? You can just focus more on what you were needing or what you know how you were reacting to yours to your situation? So again, let's take it to you second three using like I use that example. That's to try to help but since I was talking about full time, it would've been hard for you to do both parts so I'm gonna pause again kind of think about what you were needing in that distressing moment that you thought of and what anyone else involved in that situation was meeting? So again You don't have to share you can just think think of that and I would try to do that on a daily basis and again it takes time because there's so much to annoy, stuff that happens in life. There gonna be people who have totally different values from you that do really things that just really irritate you because of your value so you know just try to remember on daily basis to try its member to stop and implement these steps.

The last time I get this talk I stepped it up to offer empathy and stops I'm pretty happy with this kind of thing. Okay. So yes, emotional intelligence helps you become more effective as an individual. It can help build more effective teams, but I think there's a bigger picture here. I think the problems were facing intact all relate to this lack of concern for human beings and by problems were facing in tech I mean, yeah, it's the lack of inclusion and diversity. Yes. The fact that there's a lot of unethical choices made in tech. Yesthe fact that we're building products that can be addictive and that can be hurtful to Society and I think all of that relates to a lack of concern for human beings so that I think that's the bigger picture here. Karen Armstrong says it all she writes if it is not tempered by compassion and empathy reason can lead men and women into a moral void and I would say that's what happened in tech right now because we've been so obsessed with just a technical side to logic. The reason we really love compassion and empathy go by the wayside and because of that We've really created a moral void in tech.

So this is a meditation garden that's near me where I live in Encinitas and I liked I didn't take this picture because I thought It would be like not cool to break out my phone at a meditation. Pardon. So I got this one your website but I go there and it's a beautiful view of the ocean and they have this little booklet and I read this quote and it Really spoke to me if I want to share it with you when people speak of political social or international problems They often do not realize that these conditions are nothing more than the accumulated thoughts and actions of millions of individuals And the only way to change world conditions is to change ourselves. So I really think the even bigger picture is this is not just about tech applying these skills of emotional intelligence Can be so important it can be so powerful to create a more peaceful world Where we actually care enough about each other to understand where from and we could make a really big difference here. So with that. Thank you very much. I did take this picture awesome movies This one I can take credit for here's my newsletters that compassionate coding comm. It's also my website blog posts stuff like that I'm going to be having a course on How to avoid burnout and tag coming out soon. So please sign up if you're interested in any of that We're just getting free resources or staying in touch for whatever. Thank you very much

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enSo hello, thank you for being here especially so earlyI know it's early in the morning and I appreciate you coming waking up and coming to this weird talk had a Python conferenceso emotional intelligence for engineersSo, oh, no just the elephant in the room. This is a Python conference. So who's this lady?And why is she here to talk to us about our feelings?well, I'm glad you asked so IHypothetically, so my name is April Wenzel, and I'm a software engineer and I have been for the past decadeI worked in a number of differentStartups in Silicon Valley and I've led engineering teams including some using Python for some interesting stuff in machine learning to detect autism the kidsDo other things with Python pigs and Python and as far as why I'm hereSo every talk at this conference is really about how to become a more effective developerAnd I think that this talk is no different because I truly believe that emotional intelligenceIt's key to becoming the most effective developer that you can beAlso, I know that the Python community is a big fan of inclusion, especially in recent yearsAnd so emotional intelligence is key to creating inclusive environmentsSo learn more about me I come from San Diego. I took this picture the day before I leftIt's all this water coming from the sky. Is there any foreign to me, but I'm trying to make do other than thatI'm very much enjoying your citySo I just tried to slice the sunflower cafe a recommendation from Justin Hoover and it was delicious. This is all veganIt's a barbecue sandwich and you can see the casserole. Just amazing. So very very happy to be here in your cityOk, so I want to go over the plan for this talkI'm gonna talk about what emotional intelligence is why you should care about itI'm gonna focus a lot of time on that cuz I think it's important and how you develop itSo my company is called compassionate coding and I do workshops on emotional intelligence for engineersBut before all that I used to be kind of jerkI have detailed my jerk days in this blog postWhich has actually gotten some attention onlineIncluding some attention on reddit where people are not always the most emotionally intelligent in their communicationSo I got some interesting jerky comments autopost about being a jerkBut that's okay because that none of them are his jerky is leaves that I am to myselfso, but anyway in this post I talk about how I used to be veryFocused on just the technical sideI thought okay if I'm perfectlyLogical and rational because of course I am right and programmer then I don't have to worry about other people's emotions. That's their problemThey're offended by what I say. That's their problem. I also you know, so I was so totally focused on thatI have very not emotionally intelligentactively anti emotionally intelligentso I've mentioned this because to all the any of the negative nancies or Nettie's in the audience who are thinkingThis is a stupid soft talkI assume there probably aren't that many of you because you chose to be here, but if you came just to heckle IEncourage it, but let's save it to the end. So that bless distracting for everyone elsebut yes, so if you are feeling that skeptical IUnderstand I have deep empathy for you because I also would have made fun of this talk and thought it was sillyso please bear with me so the one exception to the not heckling isI'm trying to avoid using guys for mixed gender groups. SoThis I would say this is not a picture of guys. This photo comes from this great siteWomen in women of color and type attack calm we can access stuff that is done at women in color techI would also say that this is not a group of there isAlso, not a group of ladiesSo I'm gonna try to use these terms folks everybody everyone people all in because in the south and from Texas y'allfriends a teamso if you hear me sayguys when I'm referring to a mixed gender group or a group of unknown gender then just raise your hand andBecause I want to get better. So thank you for helping me out with thatSo those feel intelligence what is it?I'd like to talk about what it's notSo it's not just being fake. It's not just being nice. It is not ignoring logic and reasonThis is I thought this is a really cool picture. It supposed to be a Rubik's Cube then destroy itselfWe're not destroying or forgetting logic and reason it's not sugar coatingSo this is what I used to think it wasAnd that's why I hated it so much because I was like we should just be too to each otherWe shouldn't be sugarcoating and it turns out it's not sugarcoating. So steady clearIt's not that it also doesn't mean being an extrovert or a social butterflyI get that sometimes where people think well, I'm an introvert. I'm an introvertOkay, and I am definitely by no means a social butterfly and I still think you're able to build emotional intelligenceSo it's not thatIt's also not being completely ruled and dominated by, you know, your emotions your unbridled and bridled emotions. IPosted about giving this talk on LinkedIn and some honked and also gets get some interesting trollsbut somebody comments it and they're likeyou know ya motions are great and all but we don't want to beBut it's important to you know to keep them in check and I'm like that's what emotional intelligence is aboutSo why would you anyway so it's not being ruled by your emotions?Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage emotionsWhich I'm using the word emotion in it, so it's not a great definition. So to go give more specificsthese are some of the examples ofaspects of emotional intelligenceself-awarenessconfidence empathy achievement collaboration motivation resilience conflict managementTon of other things, but those that's the kind of them genre they're talking aboutYou may know them by the term soft skillsthis is the term that I hate and I very rarely use the word hate because I think it adds a lot of negativity theWorld, but I'm using it here because I feel that's dispassionately about it. I hate the word soft skills. What?Because one softness it's has become associated with weakness in our cultureSo we say things like he's gone soft to me and you know, he's gotten weak or something like thatI also think it's weirdly associated just with women. So in the early 90s, there were these commercialsCome see the softer side of Sears and it was when Sears introduced in addition to the hardware that they were sellingAccessories and clothing for women and it's not that soft skills being associated with women is bad because women are badbut rather because it's a limited view and I think soft skills quote ourEmotional intelligence really is for everyone. Not just women not just people you know who identify with their femininity. It's really for everyoneto illustrate this I had I this example was gifted to me by the universe because when I was on my way to anotherConference where I was getting this talk, I stepped onto an airport shuttle and they were talking about the Super Bowland they were talking about Doug Peterson who I guess is the coach of the Eagles and since they wanna cut this slide in ifThey have lost he was taking it out, but they said Doug Peterson really has emotional intelligenceHe recognized that word but that turnaround is so excitedhe recognizes that football is not just a tactical game but a psychological game andI was just like yes, if emotional intelligence is associated football then how can we possibly call it a soft skill so soft skill soPlease stop calling them soft skills, please. Please, pleasePlease also call the people skills because people skills has becomeThe punchline of jokes. So this is from the movie office space and the people who have come to do layoffsAsk him ask this guy what his job is I just got a bit of DomSo they asked me what he does and he mentions that hetakesrequirements from the customer and takes them to the engineers and he it says maybe they acts like confused and I have people skills andSo it's you know people skills. It's easy to make fun of because it's become kind of cliched coentrãoSo instead I recommend that we use this term catalytic skillsNow this comes from a talk that I saw by Daniel GolemanHe was getting a talk at Google and you can watch it on YouTube this linkAnd he says he calls them catalytic skills because they help usCatalyzed our technical skills meaning to help us acquire new technical skills and apply them more effectivelySo so I think I would love it. If we ditch the term Sox Bill Vol together call them catalytic skillsOkSo why should you care about any of this?So let's talk about why software projects fail. So this data this is a subset of reasons thatProject software projects fail they the application developer developer's Alliance surveyed850 software developers smoked each group, butWhatever somewhere to start from and here's some of the reasons that they gave so the ones in blueYou'll see changing or poorly documented requirements poor team organizational management developer churn or loss of key talent. These are allthings that would benefit fromemotional intelligence the way on the endNot insignificant, but less than the others you have immature dev tools and application platformsbut I feel like a lot of the discourse in tech is around how to optimize the dev tools and application platforms andReally? That's not not my software projects are failing. I mean some of them are that's one reason butLargely, it's it's more on the human side that our projects are failingAnd you can read more and that's very clearAnother study so they the in 1994 but it's still highly relevant. You still haven't fixed itThere's this paper that came out the essential competencies of software engineers, and there's very tiny table that's not important to youAll right now, but you can access the paper there. And again, I'm gonna put these slides upBut the top three how much of the tea is the palest that are thatExceptional software engineers are team oriented they seek help and they help others Wow. Okay, so that those are all aspects of emotional intelligenceAnother reason you should care. So it seems like every week there's a new article about burnout in techI've also written one which is accessible there. And I think that's becauseburnout really happens when we're not able to control ourResponses to situations and when we feel a kind of powerless and emotional intelligence can really help with thatSo I know we like to think I certainly used to think that I came to work and I shut off my emotionsI'm completely rational completely logical. You know, I'm just debating issues using you know, pure reason andIt's just not trueSo I hate to break it to you. You're not a robot. You're not none of youYou're human being and every single human being has emotionsevery single oneApple CEO Tim Cook in a commencement address last year said I'm not worried about artificial intelligenceGiving computers the ability to think like humans. I'm more concerned about people thinking like computersSo even if we could think like robots it wouldn't be a good ideaBecause we're humans and we need to to care about each otherSo as a software engineer here are some of the things that you do on a daily basispotentially that could benefit from emotional intelligence if you think effective feedback and code reviews naming variables isReally benefits from empathy designing api's also benefits from empathy which is an aspect of emotional intelligenceNegotiating with designers or product managers rallying support for a new tool quick story thereI was at a company and we were using a remoteconferencing tool called sakokuAnd the quality was really bad and it was just it was always crashing because of how big our team wasSo some of us that suggested we use zoom and we did this we prepared this very logical documentspreadsheet comparing the pros and cons and we you know trying to rally support andEveryone was so emotional about it and it turned out that it wasn't because of the pros and cons, you knowThey weren't convincing because the people who like to poco so much felt that it helped them feel more a lot. Theycontributed to their sense of belonging on the team because it had this like these littleOffice pictures of little offices like a virtual office and for some reason they had they had grownEmotionally attached to this tool and so their response was so emotional because of that so it was hardSo we need to elevate the conversation from just a purely rational level to really address it on a human levelSo even rallying support for a new tool a new framework in benefit from emotional intelligenceAlso being able to motivate yourself to learn new skillsinterviewing candidatesDefinitely a big one here to be able to put people at ease into not rule out people unfairlyThrough your interview style and also to mentor new hires. IWould also suggest that the agile manifesto is a way of layering emotional intelligence on to software developmentSo I went through all of the principles of the agile manifesto and called out which elements of emotional intelligence each one addressesSo here's just one exampleSo one of the principles is we both know changing requirements even late in developmentAgile processes harness change for the customers competitive advantage in this because the empathy service service orientationadaptabilityOptimism and initiative which are all aspects little intelligenceso Jerry Weinberg wrote this great book the psychology of computer programming in the early 70s andHe said it is possible to be too smart for programming if the person is not smart enough to use this intelligenceTo modify the social behavior and methods of conversationI thought it is a nice quote and it was the 70s which is why it uses his but IWant it to the percentage of with fidelity's there? Ok?There are also some personal benefits many personal benefits to growing emotional intelligence. It helps reduce your stress improves productivityhelps you with better relationshipsIncreases your happiness and I know a citation neededso we've visit the greater good science center at UC Berkeley's website because they have tons ofResearch backs studies on this so that's why I have new citation for each oneYou can do your research take my word for it, or you can decide I've decided that I don't necessarily needAbsolute proof of something working before I'm willing to experiment it if it has, you know a low investmentSo I've also seen these in my own lifeOkay, so assuming now that you're at least somewhat interested developing your emotional intelligence. Let's talk about how to do itSo I like to use a metaphor. That's not unfamiliar to people intentSo hopefully most of you are familiar with the idea of being on call I saw so we're the past dayThere's been like a lot of discussion on Twitter. People are debating on callI haven't really been following it, but they're apparently, you know, most people understand this idea of being on callBut just to make it clearSo if you if your site goes down or if there's something there's some kind of problem on your app or your websitesomebody will get a notification probably not on an actual device like this anymore, butthat's you know, you're on call soBeing a human it's kind of like being on call all the time and you're distressing emotions are like alerts and similarsimilarly to howWhen you don't deal with an alert properlyon your systemIt's similar to when you do that as a humanDisaster strikes. So what does it look like if you don't handle your remote channel alerts properly?well, Daniel Goldman says out of control emotions can make smart people stupid andWhat he means by that are some examples you might if you're over if you're very emotional about somethingWhat you might do is send an email that you later regret I may or may not have done this in the pastYou may send a slack message. That isn't particularly kind you may you know, yell at somebody and say something that you regretYou also just may be so distracted by how angry you are that you're not productiveIt's like so this is why it's helpful to be able to manage your distressing emotionsAnd this is just one aspect of emotional intelligence, but I feel like it illustrates the bigger picture hereSo that's the one we're gonna focus onSo I'd like to present to you an emotional incident runbook so similar to how when there's an alert on your systemSometimes you'll have some kind of runbook you might call it a playbook and it's a list of things that you can do to helptroubleshoot the siteso maybe it's you know where to look in the logs to see if something's broken orYou know who to contact about this near that or what to look for in the database or whatever. It may be to troubleshootso I'm gonna do that but for your emotional incidentsSo here's the process I'd like to presentWhich is slowing downTending to your needsOffering empathy and proceeding calmly these are steps. You can take whenever you find yourself in the middle of an emotional incidentThe spells out stop which is niceEasy to remember so we'll go through each one in turnThe first one is slow downWhich is a bit ironic. It's I'm a fast talker and I'm saying slow down, but it's very importantso I took a meditation class a few years ago andThe instructor was talking about how our anxious mind is kind of like a jar of waterThat's full of sediment that's been shaken up and all of our anxious thoughts are like the sediment and thatMeditation or just slowing down in an informal way?Allows the sediment or the anxious thoughts to settle so that we have clarityin the jar meaning you can see through the water but alsoMetaphorically in your mind you have more clarity about your situation. That's why it's so importantTrue story. I dropped that meditation class after the laughsI thought it was moving too slowly and I thought I'd be remiss and get it fasterSo I had a lot to learn but I think I've made some progress since thenSo the next I was tending to your needsSo what are beads what I'm even in Venice?So here are some examples of needs they come from a book called nonviolent communication by Marshall Rosenberg highly recommend this bookSo we have basic means like shelter arrest food safetyWe also have me it's like autonomy creativity meaning love respect trust closeness community funLaughter beauty order. PeaceSo most time you have spiritual needsThese are examples of needs that meet we could be experiencing and they definitely affect our emotional responsesSo the empathy piece is trying to understand what the other person is feelingValuing and eating so you slow downYou understand your needs you tend to them?If you can first you understand what the other person is feeling and then you proceed calmlyWith what you've decided based on all that informationso I'd like to walk through an example just because that really helped andThis may be difficult to read so I'm going to read it outIt's actually difficult for me to read on here so quick. You look closerBut yeah, so here's an example of an exchange between two developers and please imagine them as whatever gender you would likeI tried to use names that are commonly used for multiple genders. Sothe first one saysAlex I saw that you set the points on a story by yourself again, we're supposed to vote as a team nowThey're discussing an issue tracker where you set points on a story like in them an agile software developmentThe other developer says I never agreed to that the story was just a quick task. What does it matter?We have a process in place and we're supposed to stick to it. You always do that bring up processWe waste so much time talking about processI just want to get things done and you're always being reckless and breaking thingsWe have processes in place for a reason if you can't stick to them. Maybe you shouldn't be on the teamYeah, maybe I shouldn't well, okay that escalated quickly. So this is what happens when we don't apply emotional intelligencewe think we're having a perfectly rational rational debate about process and this and that but you can tell people's emotions are definitelyInvolved here, even if what they're sayingYou know may just be could be potentially just rafflesoLet's walk through the steps to slow down. So the first is you knowjust because you see something that bothered to you don't just immediately jump in and try toCriticize someone or tell them why they're wrong, right? So let's take a step back and try to unwind this a bit. Ok, soMorgan sees that Alex have set the story point without consulting the teamOkay. So what is it likely that Morgan values in this situation? I would say that Morgan values orderOrganization structure process. Why does this person value these things? Well, I would imagine it's becauseMorgan would like santaville deliver value to the customers in organized and productive efficient way, soWhat is Alex value in this situation? It seems to me likeAlex values moving quicklynot getting weighed down by excessive process andWhy would Alex value that well?probably because Alex would like to deliver value to the customer efficiently and productively soReally if you take the time to slow down you realize heyWe're both on the same team and probably our end goal is actually the same. So, although we may have some different values in betweenWe don't need to have this really hostile exchangeOkay, so slow downLooked at the needs. So let's proceed calmly. So let's see how this conversation could goSo Morgan instead says Alex when I saw that you set the points on a story without consulting anyoneI felt concerned because I need to trust that we share responsibility as the team. Can you explain what happened?Alex, says the story was just a quick one point task. What does it matter?Morgan says, it seems like you value moving quickly and feel that process sometimes gets in the way is that right now?It says well, yeah, I don't want to talk about process. I just want to get things doneMorgan says I also want to get things done. It's also important to me that I feel a sense of orderWould you be willing to send a quick note to the team when you point a story on your own so that we at least?We know and then Alex says yeah, I guess I can do thatSo you'll see this example if I didn't create a magical world where both?People are applying these techniques in this situation. Pretty much only Morgan is applying new techniques, but it can still worksoYou know and you can reach a solution where because you remember what the end goal isYou can come to something that both people can agree withSo I knowIf you're like me when I was sort of talking about this what a waste of time to have to do this in every conversationWell one you don't have to do it in every conversation because sometimes you build up rapport with people so that you don't need toYou're unlikely to havean emotional incident every single timeBut when you do feel yourself getting emotional like when you feel your heart starting to beat faster your fight-or-flightMechanisms are kicking in. That's really when you know that you need to slow down and work through these stepsso giving you kind of a starter guide to this emotional incident runbook, but like I said,It's a much bigger picture here with emotional intelligence and you'll start to notice patterns the things that you value so much that trigger youAnd trigger that emotional response. So for example some people valuefairness, rightSo if something at work happens that seems unfair which is one of the most common complaints in the workplaceThen you may feel yourself getting emotionalSo it's really about just being able to communicate those needs in a productive way and it really takes practice a lot of practiceI can tell you somebody who's had to make this transitionBut it's so worth it and the whole time. I think it's important to keep in mind a growth mindsetWhich means let's not say I'm not a people person or I'm an introvert or I'm an engineer. I'm not a managerSo why do I have to care about people but instead they hey these skills can help me be more effective in my jobSo I'm gonna work to develop them over time and I'm gonna be patient with myself as I'm learning thisso to this point IWould like to at least do a little bit of exercise a little exercise with you to give you an example with thisDon't worry. No one's gonna have to say anything and we're talked toIt's all gonna happen in here so think about a time when you lost control of your emotionsSo when you yelled at somebody or you wrote name read email we all we all do itYou know at least in your head really have gotten angry at somebody I guarantee itIt's not again. You can tackle me at the end of officeOkayso think of an incident and if you're having trouble recallingSomething I would say an easy one is getting stuck in trafficEveryone gets so annoyed in traffic right? Because someone cuts you off or someone's not going fast enough. Someone's doing something differentlysojust I'm gonna pause for a few seconds and just let you think and try to try to come call to mind an incident andAgain, you're not gonna have to tell anyone about this though. It doesn't matterIt's about work personal life, whatever but think about a time when you feel that maybe you said something you regretYou did something a little bit onThat was clearly motivated by out of control emotions. Okay. So let's take it a few secondsSo hopefully you have one in mind dot you can use the the car one becausethat would probably works and if you don't drive you could think aboutWhen you've had to wait in a really long linePerhaps at the DMV or somewhere elseyou couldn't get the DMV if you don't even if you don't drive I guess but orLike maybe in line at a amusement park or something? Okay. So then keeping in mind that instead they thought ofWhat would have happened if maybe you'd slowed down?Okay, think about what were your needs in that moment? So let's see in the traffic example, so when I'm stuck in traffic and Iactually get more upset when somebody's like tailgating me because I just i'veBeen rear-ended before and so I kind of have this fear around that so when somebody is tailgating meWhat I feel is fear. I feel fearI feelannoyance because I'm like don't they know that there's certain following distance that we learned when we took into a driver's test and we're supposedTo be following that and I actually drive quickly. So it's surprising to me even in when it happens. But anywaySo that's what I'm valuing. So then you know, I could just say oh what a jerk, rightBut that's what we're gonna do here. So we're gonna think okay offer empathy. Why is this person tailgating me?What are they feeling value me in needing? Well, I suspect that they are trying to get somewhere quicklyMaybe they're in a rush because of something, you know distressing happening in their lifeMaybe it's just trying to get home to see their family for some reason. They're in a hurryMaybe they have a bad day and they feel powerless and this is you know tailgating meIt's how they're trying to assert their dominanceI don't know what it is, but I can I can think about these possibilities to help build empathy. I can proceed calmlySo what are my options?Yeah, I could just like slam drinksRight, but I try to avoid that I do sometimes tap but not in an annoying way like more and just like, you knowI'm scared way, but but again, I can't control how its how its interpreted, but maybe I can change lanesmaybe I could get off I could actually get off they at the highway take an exit and then maybe you know try again andHope for the best there are things I could do but what I'm not gonna do is get angryAnd I'm not going to you know, try to get behind them and then Hoggart or you know, flash my brides or somethingI'm gonna do something calmly. So in your situation see you. You know, what were you meeting?No, what were you meeting?And what was the other person needing and if no one else was involved?You can just focus more on what you were needing or whatYou know how you were reacting to yours to your situation?So again, let's take it to you second three using like I use that example. That's to try to help butSince I was talking about full time, it would've been hard for you to do both partsso I'm gonna pause again kind of think about what you were needing in that distressing moment that you thought of andWhat anyone else involved in that situation was meeting?So againYou don't have to share you can just think think of that and I would try to do thaton a daily basis and again it takes time because there's so much to Annoying stuff that happens in life there gonna be people whoHave totally different values from you that do really things that just really irritate you because of your valuesso, you know just try to remember on daily basis to try its member to stop andimplement these stepsthe last time I get this talk IStep three was empathize. So it's spelled step and I realized that didn't really make senseAnd I was like wait a second. I have to change it to offer empathy and stopsI'm pretty happy with this kind of thing. Okay. So yes emotional intelligence helps you become more effective as an individualYes, it can help build more effective teams, but I think there's a bigger picture here. IThink the problems were facing intact all relate to this lack of concern for human beings and by problems were facing in techI mean, yeah, it's the lack of inclusion and diversity. Yes. The fact that there's a lot of unethical choices made in techYesthe fact that we're building products that can be addictive and that can be hurtful toSociety and I think all of that relates to a lack of concern for human beings so that I think that's the bigger picture hereyouKaren Armstrong says it all she writes if it is not tempered by compassion and empathyreason can lead men and women into a moral void and I would say that's what happened in tech right now because we've been soObsessed with just a technical side to logic. The reason we really love compassion and empathy go by the wayside and because of thatWe've really created a moral void in techSo this is a meditation garden that's near me where I live in Encinitas and I liked I didn't take this picture because I thoughtIt would be like not cool to break out my phone at a meditation. Pardon. So I got this one your websitebut I go there and it's a beautiful view of the ocean and they have this little booklet and I read this quote and itReally spoke to me if I want to share it with youwhen people speak of political social or international problemsThey often do not realize that these conditions are nothing more than the accumulated thoughts and actions of millions of individualsAnd the only way to change world conditions is to change ourselvesSo I really think the even bigger picture is this is not just about tech applying these skills of emotional intelligenceCan be so important it can be so powerful to create a more peaceful worldWhere we actually care enough about each other to understand where from and we could make a really big difference here. SoWith that. Thank you very much. I did take this picture awesome moviesThis one I can take credit for here's my newsletters that compassionate coding comm. It's also my website blog posts stuff like thatI'm going to be having a course onHow to avoid burnout and tag coming out soon. So please sign up if you're interested in any of thatWe're just getting free resources or staying in touch for whatever. Thank you very much\n"