Podcasts about compassionate coding

In this episode of Maintainable, Robby speaks with April Wensel, Founder and Owner of Compassionate Coding. April shares her journey in the software industry and how she came to embrace compassion as a core value in coding and team dynamics. She explains why empathy is critical when working with legacy code, mentoring junior developers, and addressing technical debt.Episode Highlights[00:05:32] Introduction to Compassionate Coding: April discusses the mission behind Compassionate Coding and why human-centered development is essential.[00:13:36] Compassion and Technical Debt: How fostering a compassionate mindset helps teams navigate the challenges of maintaining legacy code and tackling technical debt.[00:20:10] Empathy in Code Reviews: April talks about the role of compassion in creating healthy, constructive code review cultures.[00:26:30] Onboarding with Compassion: The importance of pairing and empathy in onboarding new engineers, whether junior or senior.[00:31:55] The Refactor vs. Rewrite Debate: April explains why she usually sides with refactoring over rewriting code, and how compassion can inform that decision.[00:41:20] The Role of Leadership in Code Quality: How leaders can set the tone for compassionate coding by prioritizing better documentation and creating a supportive team environment.[00:44:56] Community Service and Building Empathy: April shares how volunteering outside of tech has helped her develop empathy that translates into better teamwork and communication in the workplace.Key Takeaways:Compassion in coding isn't just about clean code; it's about how we treat ourselves and others in the process of writing and maintaining software.Legacy code doesn't have to be a source of frustration; by embracing empathy and self-compassion, teams can tackle it with a positive mindset.Pairing and mentorship are powerful tools in onboarding, helping to bring new team members into a supportive, inclusive environment.Effective communication with stakeholders about technical debt requires empathy and understanding of their priorities.Compassionate coding also extends beyond the development team, influencing interactions with non-engineers, users, and the broader community.Resources:Compassionate CodingApril's Twitter12 Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen ArmstrongFollow April Wensel:LinkedInTwitterWebsiteThanks to Our Sponsor!Turn hours of debugging into just minutes! AppSignal is a performance monitoring and error-tracking tool designed for Ruby, Elixir, Python, Node.js, Javascript, and other frameworks.It offers six powerful features with one simple interface, providing developers with real-time insights into the performance and health of web applications.Keep your coding cool and error-free, one line at a time! Use the code maintainable to get a 10% discount for your first year. Check them out! Subscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.Keep up to date with the Maintainable Podcast by joining the newsletter.

In this latest episode of our 'Sips of Wisdom' series, Ryan Burgess sits down with April Wensel, founder of Compassionate Coding. April shares her unique journey from software engineer to teaching emotional intelligence and compassion in tech. With a background in computer science and experience in Bay Area startups, April discusses the importance of integrating emotional intelligence into software development. She provides valuable insights on managing burnout, fostering empathy, and improving team dynamics. April also shares personal anecdotes and professional advice for creating healthier, more inclusive work environments. Don't miss this inspiring conversation about the human side of software development. Items mentioned in the episode: CompCompassionate Coding, Ryan's Engineering Management Resources, Cat Hicks, Ph.D, Self-Compassion - Kristin Neff, Ph.D Guests: April Wensel - @aprilwensel Panelists: Ryan Burgess - @burgessdryan Episode transcript: https://www.frontendhappyhour.com/episodes/sips-of-wisdom-interview-with-april-wensel

We chat with April Wensel, founder of Compassionate Coding, about helping programmers bring more compassion to themselves and others. Resources: Confessions of a Recovering Jerk Programmer Marshall Rosenberg - Nonviolent Communication Kristin Neff - Self-Compassion Karen Armstrong - Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center definition of compassion Oren Jay Sofer's Needs & Feelings Lists Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF

In this episode, Scott talks to April Wensel from Compassionate Coding about empathy in coding and her keynote at php[tek] 2024. The post Community Corner: Interview With April Wensel of Compassionate Coding appeared first on php[architect].

Is It Possible to Infuse Compassion in the Tech Industry? Compassionate Coding Founder Answers with a Resounding "YES!" April Wensel, Founder of Compassionate Coding, discusses the "secret sauce" of her company's success in showing tech companies that compassion matters to the bottom line.

April joins the podcast to tell us about her company and to explain what compassion looks like practically in the dev world.   https://codingcat.dev/podcast/_typescript-is-freaking-hard Sponsors: Cloudinary - Build faster with AI powered image and video APIs.  https://cld.media/codingcatdev Recorded: December 5,2023 3:00 PM 00:00 Intro and Welcome April 10:51 Sponsor: Cloudinary  11:30 Compassionate Coding 16:08 What is Compassion  28:08 Compassionate Coding the Company  35:22 Perfect Picks --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/codingcatdev/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/codingcatdev/support

For this episode, Rob and I interviewed April Wensel, founder of Compassionate Coding. We talked about: * What her mission at Compassionate Coding is * Why compassion is so important * How leaders can create more compassionate organizations * Connection, communication across differences, & assertiveness * The roles of suffering and intuition in building compassion * How mindfulness and spirituality are important pieces to the compassion puzzle * Her honest answer to “is this your dream career?” Enjoy this multi-layered and useful episode! Special Guest: April Wensel.

We could all do with a little bit more compassion in our lives, and April Wensel is making sure that we can bring it to our work as well. April Wensel is the founder of Compassionate Coding, helping companies and tech professionals communicate more and effectively so that we can be better at what we do better to each other and better to ourselves.Join us as we speak about April's journey through technology, finding purpose with compassionate coding, and putting the humanity back into technology. I'm Michele Ong, and this is STEAM Powered.About April Wensel April Wensel is an international keynote speaker and the founder of Compassionate Coding, a conscious business that provides communication skills training to technology professionals. Prior to starting Compassionate Coding, she spent a decade as a software engineer and technical leader at various startups in Silicon Valley, building products in such fields as healthcare, gaming, education, and user research. Away from the keyboard, she enjoys gleaning fruit, running ultramarathons, and experimenting with vegan recipes.Show Notes (link)[00:01:09] Studying Computer Science at a liberal arts college.[00:02:54] Where April saw her future in computing.[00:03:46] The path to Compassionate Coding.[00:08:54] Teaching emotional intelligence to tech.[00:10:35] Relating to the need to develop emotional intelligence from her own experiences.[00:13:28] When you faced with a culture that has to change.[00:15:41] Reflecting on how April's liberal arts background informs her work now.[00:17:12] April's observations in the course of her work.[00:18:42] The two sides of compassion.[00:19:44] Feedback as a compassionate skill.[00:21:28] April's reflections on her own journey with emotion intelligence.[00:23:03] April's personal journey approaching burnout and the impetus for change towards compassion.[00:25:02] The rate of burnout in these fields and how compassion can help.[00:27:36] The shift towards compassion in other technical fields.[00:30:20] Which childhood book holds the strongest memories for you?[00:31:56] What advice would you like to give someone who'd like to do what you do, and what advice should they ignore?Connect with STEAM PoweredWebsite | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | PatreonHosted and produced by Michele Ong.Music is "Gypsy Jazz in Paris 1935" by Brett Van Donsel.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacyOP3 - https://op3.dev/privacyPodsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

How can you change the world (and subsequently your workplaces) through compassion? April Wensel reminds us that people are suffering, but we can choose to alleviate their suffering or at least not add to it. In this episode we discuss fierce compassion, rational compassion, self compassion (all the compassions), and the differences between compassion and empathy. Compassion is not about toning things down or embracing meekness; it is about standing up for what's right and channeling your emotions into action and change. Will you join us? - Give WISEcast monthly listener support or make a one-time donation via Paypal. - April Wensel is an international keynote speaker and the founder of Compassionate Coding, a conscious business that provides communication skills training to technology professionals. Prior to starting Compassionate Coding, she spent a decade as a software engineer and technical leader at various startups in Silicon Valley, building products in such fields as healthcare, gaming, education, and user research. Away from the keyboard, she enjoys gleaning fruit, running ultramarathons, and experimenting with vegan recipes. Thanks for joining us on WISEcast April. WISEcast is featured as one of the top 10 podcasts from the 60 Best Women in STEM Podcasts by Feedspot! Check out The Wisest Children on YouTube and see how our young scientist proteges are making science accessible and fun through some STEM activities for kids! You can connect with us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn or by email at thewisestwomen@gmail.com. Use CELEBRATE15 to get $15 off your annual Women In Bio Membership at womeninbio.org --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewisestwomen/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewisestwomen/support

As new developers enter the industry, it’s essential to learn from past mistakes. Treating people with respect is necessary, and breaking the “jerk programmer” mindset is an integral part of building a better future in tech. At the core, we are all human beings, and we must be bringing out the human side of developers. For episode 12 of our podcast, we speak with April Wensel of Compassionate Coding. April has been a regular guest speaker in our classes, and we are delighted to talk to her on the podcast. From her first programming class in high school, through working at Sony, and starting her own company Compassionate Coding, we talk with April about how she created her path in the technology world. Chelsea and April also dive into how April launched Compassionate Coding to help developers understand emotional intelligence, ethics, and compassion for other people. While we are nowhere near the change that needs to be made, it’s been rewarding for her to see the growth that has been taking place and the conversations that are happening.

April Wensel has a powerful message for engineers about how to improve your own lives as well as the lives of your coworkers and the users you serve. April is the founder of Compassionate Coding, an organization that teaches emotional intelligence to software dev teams. If you’re already nodding, you’ll love this episode. If you don’t think it’s a problem, just listen to April’s perspective. She tells us two reasons why people resist becoming more compassionate—and one thing she sees that gives her hope. LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Pair Programming and Mob Programming Start Where You Are by Meera Lee Patel Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod It’s Time to Retire “RTFM", from the Compassionate Coding blog MUSICAL INSPIRATION FOR THIS EPISODE ON SPOTIFY: “Better People” by India Arie  ABOUT THIS PODCAST Stayin' Alive in Tech is an oral history of Silicon Valley and technology. Melinda Byerley, the host, is a 20-year veteran of Silicon Valley and the founder of Timeshare CMO, a digital marketing intelligence firm, based in San Francisco. We really appreciate your reviews, shares on social media, and your recommendations for future guests. And check out our Spotify playlist for all the songs we refer to on our show. 

Programmers can be jerks sometimes. April Wensel is looking to change that with her company, Compassionate Coding. She provides keynotes and workshops on emotional intelligence and its importance in improving productivity and a company's bottom line. Follow April on Twitter @aprilwensel Check out her website at compassionatecoding.com

​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

This series features a rotating panel of guests returning from our past interviews in an effort to examine core issues and topics that have revealed themselves as common and integral subjects deserving further exploration. Roundtable Guests for this episode: Hema Crockett: is a founder at High Performanceology (highperformanceology.com)Gianna Biscontini: Gianna is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and founder of W3RKWELL (https://www.w3rkwell.com)  April Wensel: April is the founder of Compassionate Coding (compassionatecoding.com)The dialogue captured here is part of our ongoing effort to host transparent and honest rhetoric for any and all individuals who, like myself, find great value in hearing the opinions and experience of those people who have directed their careers by their own ingenuity.You can find information regarding my podcast series and my work on patriciakathleen.com Welcome to Roundtable with Patricia Kathleen.  Now let’s start the conversation!  

Interview with April Wensel, the founder of Compassionate Coding, a conscious business that helps technical teams cultivate sustainable, human-­centered software development practices built on a foundation of emotional intelligence.  This podcast series is hosted by Patricia Kathleen and Wilde Agency Media. The series interviews women and women-identified entrepreneurs, founders, business owners, and gurus across all industries to investigate those voices in business today. Both the platform and discussion are designed to further the global conversation in regards to the changing climate in entrepreneurial and founding roles. #patriciakathleenpodcasts #wildeagency #femalefounders #femaleentrepreneurs #sandiegostartups #womeninbusiness #womenintech #CEOmindset 

Software may be written on machines, but it's written by and for human beings.That’s according to Ledge’s guest, April Wensel founder, of Compassionate Coding, a company offering advice and workshops to engineering teams on how to bring a more human touch to the workplace.“We weren’t caring enough about human beings in the engineering process,” notes April, who used her background in software engineering to tailor her company’s interactive workshops so the content deeply aligns with her technical audience.In this episode, we get to hear April’s perspective on the importance of emotional intelligence in the coding process, and how to promote psychological safety, diversity, and organizational effectiveness. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode 47 of the Mavens Do It Better Podcast features April Wensel software engineer, technical leader, keynote speaker, writer, runner, and ethical vegan. She is also the founder of Compassionate Coding, a conscious business that helps technical teams cultivate sustainable, human-centered software development practices built on a foundation of emotional intelligence.April and Heather caught up virtually in San Diego, CA and Marina del Rey, CA.Listen in as April and Heather talk about:April’s background as a software engineer leading engineering teams in Silicon Valley and how she moved into lecturing, speaking and bringing a human side to coding and tech through looking at issues of burnout, inclusion, diversity, engineering teams, giving workshops on how we need to care about people more and grow our emotional intelligence.How we can build products and systems that address mental health by taking on new compassionate tech values: leaving ego and embracing humility, leaving elitism and embracing inclusion, leaving competition and embracing cooperation, leaving being “smart” and embracing learning, leaving being a “Rockstar” and embracing being a mentor. These values have been part of keynote speeches she has given at a wide variety of events.A dive into individual happiness and being the best versions of ourselves and the workshops that she offers with a boutique approach to shape the curriculum for her client’s needs. Workshops are often grouped into three sections – The self: dealing with taking care of one’s self, looking inward. Communication with other people: talking through how to understand that everyone is unique with their own set of qualities. An action plan: giving attendees to way apply the principles learned moving forward.How a passion for ultra-marathon running transformed her life and how a compassion retreat helped her see how her actions didn’t reflect her values leading her to become an ethical vegan. She explains what both are and how that retreat inspired her and much of her work in compassionate coding and emotional intelligence.To connect with April: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIN | Twitter | Compassionate Coding WebsiteTranscript

On this episode Abadesi talks to April Wensel, founder of Compassionate Coding, and one of Aba’s favorite follows on Twitter. She’s a veteran software engineer who has worked in healthcare, entertainment, research and education. In this episode they discuss... How to make your interviews more inclusive “What you can do is discuss problem solving on a technical level, because I think that’s really one of the most important skills as a software engineer. It’s not memorizing syntax or being able to code something up really fast on the spot, instead you turn it into an evolving conversation where you talk about architecture, how to choose frameworks, or working through refactoring problems.” April recounts her first time hiring a team of engineers and says that it ended up being fifty percent women and people of color without making any special effort to do so. She explains how she approached the hiring process and why typical tech industry interviews, despite being used by some of the biggest companies in tech, exclude too many people from the process and don’t test for the right skills. Why we need to change the way we think about the tech industry “We don’t think a lot about the people who are involved in or affected by tech. We’re mostly focused on the hot new technology or whatever. That’s what inspired me to start something to change how we think about technology from the level of software engineers.” April explains how she came to the realization about the tech industry that spurred her to create Compassionate Coding. She says that too often we don’t think enough about the human side of technology and that we need a new approach. Why telling someone you’re non-technical is nonsensical, and why she says, "if you can use a fork, you’re technical" “I was always hearing this term non-technical. When people call themselves non-technical, that’s heartbreaking because they’re limiting their possibilities. It’s like when people say they’re not creative. It’s such a fixed way of looking at the world that’s just not true. Whatever skills they have, they’re technical. Anything where you go really deep is technical.” She says that in her experience in tech “non-technical” has been used as a codeword for a broad swath of unspoken reasons that someone wouldn’t fit in. She explains why we need a broader definition of technical that doesn’t just mean that someone has coding skills. The problem of “toxic elitism” in the tech industry “The culture that uses terms like RTFM implies that ‘I’m not going to help you, and you should be ashamed that you didn’t help yourself first.’ It assumes that this person is lazy and can’t figure things out.” April talks about some of the toxic attitudes and behaviors that pervade tech, and specifically software engineering. She says that people are too often reticent to help each other and that there is an unwarranted sense of superiority among engineers. How you can do your part to cultivate a positive culture at your company “Imagine the fear that we [women and minorities] have been living in forever. Now that we’re having conversations, yes it’s making men and people from the majority groups more mindful, but yes, your words are important and it’s worth being mindful about them. It’s about not being afraid to make a mistake but knowing you will make mistakes and being humble enough to admit that and then to handle it gracefully when someone points out that you made a mistake and commit to doing better.” Aba and April swap stories of some of the most egregious interactions they’ve had or heard about in the tech industry, and explain how we can all help to make tech more more inclusive. We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to Copper for their support.

April Wensel on Software Developer’s Journey, Arup Chakrabarti on On Call Nightmares, Alistair Cockburn on Being Human, Brian Balfour on Product To Product, and Kent Beck on Unlearn. I’d love for you to email me with any comments about the show or any suggestions for podcasts I might want to feature. Email podcast@thekguy.com. This episode covers the five podcast episodes I found most interesting and wanted to share links to during the two week period starting May 13, 2019. These podcast episodes may have been released much earlier, but this was the fortnight when I started sharing links to them to my social network followers. APRIL WENSEL ON SOFTWARE DEVELOPER’S JOURNEY The Software Developer’s Journey podcast featured April Wensel with host Tim Bourguignon. April talked about hiring for attitude and mindset over the technical skills of the moment. She distinguished between the fixed and growth mindset and talked about how hearing a statement from an interviewee like, “I’m just not good with people,” is a sign that the person is currently thinking with a fixed mindset. Tim asked her to describe her company, Compassionate Coding. At Compassionate Coding, April teaches workshops on emotional intelligence to technical people. These skills are often called “soft skills,” but she prefers to call them “catalytic skills,” because they help technical people catalyze the application and acquisition of their other skills. Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/45-april-wensel-encourages-us-to-get-in-touch-our-core/id1079113167?i=1000434465519 Website link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/190346/982475 ARUP CHAKRABARTI ON THE ON CALL NIGHTMARES PODCAST The On Call Nightmares podcast featured Arup Chakrabarti of PagerDuty with host Jay Gordon. Arup talked about starting out in medical research and being exposed to the notion of on call because much of the research involved having access to cadavers that were only available in short time windows that required him, from time to time, to drive to the hospital on a Saturday night. At Amazon, Arup learned what it looks like for not just individuals to go on call, but for whole departments and companies to go on call. At Netflix, he worked with the “father” of Chaos Monkey and managed site reliability as Netflix built out the simian army. He told a story about a NTP time drift that alerted almost every team at PagerDuty. The SRE on call quickly diagnosed the problem as NTP, but their run list was broken, so getting things back took a while. During this time, Arup had to keep the engineers from disabling these constantly-firing alerts because that could have caused them to miss something critical. He says this incident taught him that incident response is a team sport. This led to a discussion about the importance of keeping things light during an incident and taking the issue seriously without taking yourself seriously. Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/episode-21-arup-chakrabarti-pagerduty/id1447430839?i=1000436439951 Website link: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/oncallnightmares/episodes/2019-04-25T04_08_18-07_00 ALISTAIR COCKBURN ON BEING HUMAN The Being Human podcast featured Alistair Cockburn with host Richard Atherton. Alistair talked about doing his Ph.D, being able to put the word “people” in the title of his dissertation (apparently a rare thing in academia), and how his heart sank when he realized that his own mentor’s dissertation on methodologies had already covered everything. Then he realized that if it really had covered everything, you could take it to any business in the world and it would solve their problems, but it doesn’t because businesses are made of people and no single methodology can solve all of the problems. Alistair says instead that methodologies and processes should be like tissues: you use them and throw them away. After two or three months, you have to change. He says there are some good things about process, one being that it provides a checklist, like that which a pilot and copilot run through before an airplane takes off. Often though, he says, processes are like drop boxes. You create them so that people don’t have to talk to each other. Companies that have communication problems often want Alistair to create a process for them to resolve those communication problems, unaware of the contradiction. Alistair often has the same advice regardless of the methodology a client has chosen. If a client says, “We do SAFe,” he says, “That’s fine, increase collaboration!” If a client says, “We refuse to do SAFe,” he says, “That’s fine, increase collaboration!” He also says he doesn’t have to teach collaboration because everyone already knows how. We just don’t want to.  Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/56-the-heart-of-agile-with-alistair-cockburn/id1369745673?i=1000435504887 Website link: http://media.cdn.shoutengine.com/podcasts/4081235a-554f-4a8f-90c2-77dc3b58051f/audio/afdb129e-9fcb-40e4-9243-b85f56f3e1b5.mp3 BRIAN BALFOUR ON PRODUCT TO PRODUCT The Product To Product podcast featured Brian Balfour with host Eleni Deacon. They talked about north star metrics, that is, having one metric that attempts to capture all of the most important dimensions of your business. Brian doesn’t believe you can capture this in one metric and instead prefers a constellation of metrics that includes: 1) a retention metric such as monthly/weekly active users, 2) an engagement metric that measures the amount of engagement and the trend over time for those active users, and 3) a monetization metric. He particularly doesn’t like revenue metrics because of their lagging nature and how they ignore actual usage. Being on a data engineering team myself in my current role, I liked what Brian had to say about how to approach data. He says companies need to take on the mentality that data is not a project with a start and end date, but a core part of building product that is meant to constantly evolve. Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/north-stars-are-leading-you-astray-brian-balfour-reforge/id1293415837?i=1000436155421 Website link: https://omny.fm/shows/product-to-product-podcast/north-stars-are-leading-you-astray-brian-balfour-r KENT BECK ON UNLEARN The Unlearn podcast featured Kent Beck with host Barry O’Reilly. Barry asked about the system that Kent uses to help him explore uncertainty. Kent says he has habits that help. The first habit is that of reversing any sentence that begins with the word “obviously.” When somebody says, “Obviously, programmers can’t be trusted to test their own code,” he automatically thinks, “What if that’s not true?” A second habit is whenever somebody introduces Kent to a new model of thinking, he asks himself, “What would happen if I just acted like this model was true?” and he says that he applied that habit when reading Barry’s book Unlearn. Barry asked about what made Kent feel that the Test-Commit-Revert (or TCR) technique was worth exploring, since this required an unlearning of Kent’s own Test-Driven Development (or TDD) method. Kent says that he was disenchanted with asynchronous code reviews and used a third habit of looking further forward. During his tenure at Facebook, he experienced growth in the number of engineers from 700 to 5,000. At the time, people were anticipating the problem of having 10,000 engineers working together, but Kent followed the Bill Joy idea of looking six steps further, and looked into how 100,000 engineers would work together. His solution was Limbo, or asking “How low can you go?” to shrink the size of code that can be safely committed and put immediately in production and the TCR technique came out of that line of thinking. Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/exploring-uncertainty-with-kent-beck/id1460270044?i=1000436242318 Website link: https://barryoreilly.com/unlearn-podcast/ FEEDBACK Ask questions, make comments, and let your voice be heard by emailing podcast@thekguy.com. Twitter: https://twitter.com/thekguy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithmmcdonald/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thekguypage Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_k_guy/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysPayr8nXwJJ8-hqnzMFjw Website:

April is the founder of Compassionate Coding, a conscious business that helps technical teams cultivate sustainable, human-­centered software development practices built on a foundation of emotional intelligence. She has spent the past decade as a software engineer and technical leader at various startups in Silicon Valley. As an advocate for a more socially responsible tech industry, she also mentors technologists around the world and volunteers with organizations to teach coding to people from underrepresented groups. When she is not coding or speaking, she enjoys writing, running ultramarathons, and experimenting with vegan recipes.Together we started by talking about ultrarunning and how to start a career in IT. We then brused over April's story, from Sony to various Startups in the Silicon Valley. We then talked about hiring practices, looking for a growth mindset, avoiding biases, etc. April then described her company "Compassionate Coding", what it is and why she felt the need to create it. We finally spoke about the pushbacks she endured and April gave the advice to get in touch with your core values.Here are the links of the show:Twitter: https://twitter.com/aprilwenselCompassionate Coding: https://compassionatecoding.comNewCrafts Conference: http://ncrafts.ioGrowth Mindset: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mindset#/Fixed_and_growthBlack Girls Code: http://www.blackgirlscode.comHackbright Academy: https://hackbrightacademy.comLeague of amazing programmers: http://www.jointheleague.orgCouch to 5K App: https://www.active.com/mobile/couch-to-5k-appArticle about the bias embedded in the false dichotomy of “technical” and “non-technical”: https://link.medium.com/gDLA8q8bNUCreditsMusic Aye by Yung Kartz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.Your hostSoftware Developer‘s Journey is hosted and produced by Timothée (Tim) Bourguignon, a crazy frenchman living in Germany who dedicated his life to helping others learn & grow. More about him at timbourguignon.fr.Want to be next?Do you know anyone who should be on the podcast? Do you want to be next? Drop me a line: info@devjourney.info or via Twitter @timothep.Gift the podcast a ratingPlease do me and your fellow listeners a favor by spreading the good word about this podcast. And please leave a rating (excellent of course) on the major podcasting platforms, this is the best way to increase the visibility of the podcast:Apple PodcastsStitcherGoogle PlayThanks!Support the show (http://bit.ly/2yBfySB)

We talk with Saskia Lindner about her experience working on re-frame-10x in Rails Girls Summer of Code, ClojureBridge, remote working, and compassionate coding.. ClojureBridge Talk at ClojureD on re-frame-10x re-frame-10x Saskia and Chris’ dev journal Rails Girls Summer of Code Full stack developer job at Zimpler

Today we are joined by April Wensel, the CEO and Founder of Compassionate Coding, who is here to tell us all about her company, why she started it, and the philosophical and practical ideas that are the foundation of what she does. We are also happy to welcome back Erica Quessenberry to co-host this deeply interesting conversation, in which we cover compassion, emotional intelligence, empathy, and everything in between.

April Wensel, the founder of Compassionate Coding (https://compassionatecoding.com), stops by the People Stack to talk about what compassion is as well as how to bring it to your code, your team, and your life. April discusses her journey and where she is now, how Compassionate Coding helps organizations bring more humanity to their work and more. Intro music is "I'm Going for a Coffee" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/Music_For_Podcasts_3/02_Im_Going_for_a_Coffee) by Lee Rosevere, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Special Guest: April Wensel.

In today's podcast we hear that Ukraine says it's under cyberattack, again. ESET connects Telebots and BlackEnergy. Port hacks suggest risks of mixing IT and OT. Talos finds a new Android Trojan. Skepticism over Chinese supply chain seeding attack report continues. Facebook purges more "inauthentic" sites—this time they're American. Data privacy regulation is trending, in both Sacramento and Washington. EU will consider cyber sanctions policy. NATO looks to cyber IOC. Alleged SIM-swappers arrested. Jonathan Katz from UMD on the use of a cryptographic ledger to provide accountability for law enforcement. Guest is April Wensel from Compassionate Coding on her work bringing emotional intelligence and ethics to the tech industry. For links to today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief: https://thecyberwire.com/issues/issues2018/October/CyberWire_2018_10_12.html Support our show

April Wensel of Compassionate Coding breaks down how burnout and toxic cultures cause software companies to lose effectiveness. She also gives us great tips on team-building and becoming more attractive to diverse candidates. Featured Links: April on Twitter Compassionate Coding Newsletter

Meet April Wensel, founder of Compassionate Coding, which provides training curriculum for technical teams to build supportive, diverse, and inclusive cultures, implement better code review practices, and foster better communication between engineers and other employees.   Wensel’s love of computer games during her youth led her to software engineering in college and her career. After attending Pomona College, she moved to Silicon Valley to work in the software development world for companies such as Sony, edtech startup Zoodles, AI startup Cognoa, and others.   After witnessing a multitude of company cultures, she discovered how companies were ignoring empathy and only speaking to a specific type of engineer. With this in mind, she founded Compassionate Coding to effect positive change in a company’s culture.   At the Tacos and Tech event in Mountain View in 2017, Wensel met a lot of San Diego companies who were very open to speaking about their culture and diversity. She also loved the promise of nearly year-round sunshine. Following this, she packed up the car, made the drive down, and landed in Cardiff-by-the-Sea in North County San Diego.   Listen in as she talks about the differences between company culture in San Diego and the Bay Area.   April’s San Diego picks: Favorite Tacos: Ranchos Cocina for vegan tacos Favorite Coffee: Better Buzz in Encinitas & Swell Coffee in Del Mar Favorite Beer: The Lost Abbey Confessional tasting room in Cardiff, which has several vegan options.   Visit Compassionatecoding.com to sign up for the company’s newsletter to get more content on emotional intelligence and creating more effective teams. April can also be found on Twitter: @aprilwensel & @compassioncode

San Diego based April Wensel is the founder of Compassionate Coding. After a decade in software, she noticed that there was a lot of suffering in the industry. Rather than just assuming that that can't be changed, Wensel decided compassion was the answer. In this podcast, Wensel shares her experiences helping businesses to be more compassionate in not just business matters but also in their own interpersonal conduct. She also gives a useful definition of what compassion is (recognizing suffering and acting to end it) and is not (pity, or just faking niceness). And because all businesses are made up of people, anyone can get started being more compassionate. Individuals can get in touch with their core values and businesses can take a cultural retrospective. Accenture | SolutionsIQ's Leslie Morse hosts at Agile2018 in San Diego. Reach our guest:Twitter @aprilwenselcompassionatecoding.com/ The Agile Amped podcast is the shared voice of the Agile community, driven by compelling stories, passionate people, and innovative ideas. Together, we are advancing the impact of business agility. Podcast library: www.agileamped.com Connect with us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/AgileAmpedFacebook: www.facebook.com/agileampedInstagram: www.instagram.com/agileamped/

April Wensel is the founder of Compassionate Coding, a conscious business that helps technical teams cultivate sustainable, human-­centered software development practices built on a foundation of emotional intelligence. She talks to Scott about how we can apply these concepts to our own software projects. https://twitter.com/aprilwensel https://compassionatecoding.com

DESCRIPTION Welcome to The IT Career Energizer. Phil Burgess introduces his guest April Wensel by telling us April is an international speaker and the founder of Compassionate Coding a social enterprise bringing emotional intelligence and social consciousness to the software industry. April is also a mentor and a keen advocate of diversity and inclusiveness in the industry. KEY TAKEAWAYS Phil Burgess starts the interview with April Wensel by asking her to expand on his summery and telling us a little bit more about herself. April tell us she has been working as a software engineer both in an individual capacity as a contributor and in an engineering team. She solves a lot of problems within the industry around human beings. This is why she started Compassionate Coding to inspire people to care about human beings and the people they are building the software for. In addition to these qualities she reveals to us that she is a Vegan which enabled her to bring compassion to the industry. Phil continues with the theme by asking April how she sees compassion having a bearing on how software is developed.  April looks at it from a very rational angle that when the software product is being designed, firstly, the goal is to alleviate suffering in someone’s life, and secondly how we actually go about building the software. She says we want to minimize suffering for the developers and anyone else on the team. Phil asks April “Can you perhaps tell us a unique career tip?” April discusses with Phil the benefits of identifying core values, and for her, personal filters, she advises, people should slow down and filter out some of the noises you hear in the industry. Phil agrees that identifying your core values is essential and a very good point and that if you establish what they are early, and what you want to do with your career as you mature, opinions will change but they are essential if you want a career in IT. Phil enquires of April about her worst IT moments and learning from that experience.  April tells us about a job she loved and how she was upset on ethical grounds regarding how the company was progressing, she also tells us what happened to her.  Phil shares with April an interview he did with David J Anderson ,and David made the point April was making, that in your career you have to make the choices between your job and what is ethically correct. Phil asks April about her career highlight or greatest success. April outlines how her view of compassionate coding spreading through the technical community has given her personal satisfaction. April had seen the lack of concern in human beings and knew she wanted to do something on her own.  When she receives messages from people implementing or  taking on board her ethics she says it light’s her up inside. April informs us that if we are looking to have a career in IT we need to have more that coding skills.  We need to be able to manage our time well, able to communicate our ideas in an effective way, and work well with others. April assures us that the industry is not as it always was perhaps being shut away in a basement on our own, but that IT is now in this modern landscape and communication skills are going to become more important. BEST MOMENTS April tells us “I’ve matured I am not excited by technology for technology’s sake, for me the most exciting is social entrepreneurs in technology companies April explains “we are able to apply all the techniques established and apply them to social problems” Phil asks April about non technical skills. April believes listening is a very important skill to have in the industry especially when dealing with non-technical staff. “Ignore any advice that does not resonate with your core values “April says when Phil asks her to share any parting piece of advice April discusses what happened when she had to leave the company she loved working for over ethical issues. April says it was a problem with the culture of the company and its ethics.  Her advice is “definitely leave when you know it’s time to leave” ABOUT THE HOST Phil Burgess, an I.T. consultant, mentor, and coach, is the creator and host of I.T. Career Energizer Podcast. His podcast continues to inspire, assist and guide aspirants start and grow in their career by inviting successful professionals, consultants, and experts in the I.T. CONTACT THE HOST Website: itcareerenergizer.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/philburgess ABOUT THE GUEST April Wensel's career has taken her along a path of success to founding her own business of Compassionate Coding.  Her ethics and practices within Compassionate Coding centre around her belief that we should leave this world better than we found it, and that software companies need to care about human life with compassion.  April believes that software technology should be used to help social problems as well as helping humans. April is a vegan, passionate about animal rights, and believes we should strive towards a more peaceful world. CONTACT THE GUEST Website: www.compassionatecoding.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/aprilwensel Twitter: https://twitter.com/aprilwensel

April Wensel started a company named Compassionate Coding, which aims to "humanize the tech industry." We discuss why she started the firm and how she goes about making the tech industry a better place to work. We also learn that using the term "soft skills" is not the right way to talk about the people side of things if you want to earn buy-in towards change.

April Wensel started a company named Compassionate Coding, which aims to "humanize the tech industry." We discuss why she started the firm and how she goes about making the tech industry a better place to work. We also learn that using the term "soft skills" is not the right way to talk about the people side of things if you want to earn buy-in towards change.

(@OopslandBillie), Cheryl Hammond (@bsktcase)and Joanna Vahlsing (@joannavahlsing) joined Ryan Ripley (@ryanripley) to discuss Women in Agile 2018.Billie Shuttpelz  [featured-image single_newwindow=”false”]Billie Shuttpelz – Agile Coach, Trainer, and All Around Awesome Person[/featured-image] In this episode you'll discover: Back for its third consecutive year, Women in Agile is on Sunday, August 5, 2018 (the day before the Agile2018 conference) in San Diego, CA. Click here to register. This year’s keynote is by April Wensel, an international speaker, and the founder of Compassionate Coding, a social enterprise that's bringing emotional intelligence and social consciousness to the software industry through training and coaching. How mentorship grows the community The power and value of diversity on teams Links from the show: Women in Agile 2018 – http://womeninagile.com/ Please submit a talk idea How to support the show: Thank you for your support. Here are some of the ways to contribute to the show: Share the show with friends, family, colleagues, and co-workers. Sharing helps get the word out about Agile for Humans Rate us on iTunes and leave an honest review Join the mailing list – Check out the form on the right side of the page Take the survey – totally anonymous and helps us get a better idea of who is listening and what they are interested in Leadership Gift Program Make a donation via Patreon Book of the Week: [callout]Geared toward women who are considering getting into tech, or those already in a tech job who want to take their career to the next level, this book combines practical career advice and inspiring personal stories from successful female tech professionals Brianna Wu (founder, Giant Spacekat), Angie Chang (founder, Women 2.0), Keren Elazari (TED speaker and cybersecurity expert), Katie Cunningham (Python educator and developer), Miah Johnson (senior systems administrator), Kristin Toth Smith (tech executive and inventor), and Kamilah Taylor (mobile and social developer). Written by a female startup CEO and featuring a host of other successful contributors, this book will help dismantle the unconscious social bias against women in the tech industry.  Click here to purchase on Amazon. [/callout] [reminder]Which topic resonated with you? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.[/reminder] Related Episode: Want to hear another podcast about the life of an agile coach? — Listen to my conversation with Zach Bonaker, Diane Zajac-Woodie, and Amitai Schlair on episode 39. We discuss growing an agile practice and how coaches help create the environments where agile ideas can flourish. Help promote the show on iTunes: One tiny favor.  — Please take 30 seconds now and leave a review on iTunes. This helps others learn about the show and grows our audience. It will help the show tremendously, including my ability to bring on more great guests for all of us to learn from. Thanks! Agile Dev West conference offers you the perfect opportunity to get away from distractions to immerse yourself and improve your agile skills in hot areas such as agile and lean development, scaled agile development, agile teams and leadership, digital transformation, and more. Agile for Humans listeners use code “AFH18” to receive 10% off their conference registration. Check out the entire program at adcwest.techwell.com. You'll notice that I'm speaking there again this year. Attendees will have a chance to participate in my half-day sessions on advanced scrum topics called Coaching Workshop: Taking Your Scrum to the Next Level, as well as Rethinking Your Retrospectives. I hope to see many Agile for Humans listeners in Las Vegas – June 3-8, for this great event. The post AFH 093: Women in Agile 2018 appeared first on Ryan Ripley.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if the way we build software could be more focused on human needs? What if the way we build and run teams could be more sustainable and healthy? These are the questions April Wensel sought to answer in founding Compassionate Coding. She joins us to look at how tech could better to work to serve humans in an outside the industry.

April Wensel, founder of Compassionate Coding, is a veteran software engineer and technical leader whose varied career spans such fields as education, research, healthcare, and entertainment. She has also mentored and led workshops with diversity-focused organizations like Hackbright Academy and Black Girls Code. In this episode, April talks about her past as a jerk programmer, … Continue reading #011 – Jerk Programmer to Compassionate Coder with April Wensel The post #011 – Jerk Programmer to Compassionate Coder with April Wensel appeared first on Ardent Development Podcast.

April Wensel and I discuss the concept of compassionate coding, mentoring, hiring, feedback and diversity.

In this episode, we speak with the founder of Compassionate Coding, April Wensel about the importance of a healthy culture in a digitised workplace