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Feelings are messy and uncomfortable, so why can't we just ignore them? Because emotional skills are critical for working well on a team, and for the quality of our work. In this talk you’ll learn how emotions are affecting you by modeling them as an API and looking at the code. I cover how poor handling of emotions impacts cognition, memory, and communication. Then I dive into my toolkit for handling emotions, full of practical advice and new ways of thinking.
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In the presentation titled "Hacking Your Emotional API," John Sawers addresses the crucial role emotions play in our lives, particularly in a professional setting. He introduces a metaphor likening emotions to an Application Programming Interface (API), explaining how emotions can be viewed as core endpoints processed through a middleware that maps experiences to our feelings. The talk emphasizes the importance of emotional skills in cognitive functions, memory, and effective communication, arguing that poor handling of emotions can hinder professional performance. ### Key Points Discussed: - **Understanding Emotions**: Sawers discusses how many individuals lack proper training in managing emotions, often receiving negative feedback while growing up without a guide on how to be emotionally healthy. - **The Emotional API Model**: He describes how emotions are processed like API requests through our sensory experiences, stressing that these emotional responses can lead to physical sensations and emotional reactions that loop back on themselves. - **Impact of Unprocessed Emotions**: He highlights how unaddressed emotions can affect cognition, particularly executive function, leading to a sense of powerlessness and impairing our ability to focus and solve problems effectively. - **Communication and Teamwork**: Developing emotional intelligence enhances empathy, communication and allows for better teamwork, both of which are essential in any collaborative work environment. - **The Emotional Toolkit**: Sawers introduces a four-level toolkit for managing emotions, starting from conceptual tools to techniques for personal use, collaborative processing, and ultimately, group engagement. - **Examples of Emotional Experiences**: He shares personal anecdotes about his experiences with anger and sadness, illustrating how unresolved emotions impacted his life and coding abilities. Through emotional workshops, he was able to confront and process these feelings, transforming his responses to emotional triggers. ### Conclusions: Sawers concludes that emotional skills are not merely soft skills but require significant effort and time to develop. He encourages individuals to pick one tool from his toolkit to practice consistently, aiming for emotional fluency and acknowledging that emotions, like code, can be refactored to lead to healthier responses. He emphasizes that practicing emotional expression and management can lead to better professional and personal outcomes, facilitating increased resilience and improved relationships in the workplace.
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