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Emotion-driven development

Ingo Steinke, web developer on November 03, 2023

As many people seem concerned about AI replacing humans and taking away creative and coding jobs, it becomes more important to become clear what es...
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Juliano Maia

Absolutely. I've been thinking about writing about this very topic for a while. The famous "leave your emotions at that door" is one of the worst and most naive things to say but that a lot people believe is possible. It's funny how most companies, from tiny startups to huge corporations, want their employees to use reason only and shame them for displaying emotions, when the very reason why they're in business is the FEELING that investors had that they could be profitable, as well as the FEELING of their customers about their products and brand. I a thousand percent advocate for welcoming and encouraging emotions, especially to address and even prevent conflict and drama in the work place. Great article! I'd love to help spread EDD, Emotion Driven Development. Let me know how I can help!

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Ingo Steinke, web developer

Ironically, employees are expected to show emotions during hiring interviews, like a lot of excitement for their future employer and some negative feelings that they somehow managed so that they can leave them at that door to behave like a robot when hired.

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Ingo Steinke, web developer • Edited

I didn't intend to start a movement. Maybe we should, but thinking and talking about emotions and which role the already play even in pseudo-rational decision making will already make a change.

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Juliano Maia

Well like you said, you should've thought of the emotions you'd cause on people with your article! Now it's too late, the movement has started! 😆

Joke aside, I agree. Raising awareness and talking openly about emotions is a great start. This has been my approach on the teams that I had the opportunity to lead and mentor and I will continue doing that. Welcoming emotions is fundamental to making people feel heard and accepted, and the way to building and maintaining trust.

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Ingo Steinke, web developer

I want to credit a related and inspirational talk by Dr. Emily Anhalt that I heard at beyond Tellerrand Conference this year: The 7 Traits of an Emotionally Fit Leader.

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Ingo Steinke, web developer
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Vanessa Telles

You have a valid point here!

I don't comprehend why we need to exhibit charisma, enthusiasm, expressiveness, emotional awareness, and complexity in our interviews, only to be expected to transform into unfeeling, efficient work machines the moment we secure the job.

It's utterly perplexing because if I was selected based on my personality, why on earth do they want me to completely erase it the moment I clock in?

I'm grateful that my current company doesn't operate that way, but unfortunately, it's still the reality for many people :(

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Ralph Hightower

There is only one start date that I remember, February 14, 1977, when I started employment with NCR E&M-Columbia. What I didn't realize was that I'd meet my future wife at work. I enjoyed my work, and my coworkers. She was laid off in November 1990, and I was laid off in November 1991. My first layoff hit me hard. I did use a bit of "Far Side" comic strip humor. There is a United States of America Code of Conduct for the flag, 4 U.S. Code § 8 - Respect for flag. One section of the code is to never display the flag upside down, except in dire distress, so I turned my nameplate outside my cube upside down. That is a trend that I have done in other layoffs.
Creating a resume from almost 14 years was difficult with the various projects that I worked on.

As a defensive mechanism, after that first layoff, I don't get emotionally attached to my future employers.

After my 1991 layoff, my wife and I practiced "paycheck diversity".

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Yeom suyun

Time is given equally to everyone, so it cannot be managed.
In fact, the way to manage time is to manage one's emotions.
I also think that leadership is the skill of managing other people's emotions.

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Nikki

I have accidentally been applying happiness-driven development this whole time by working on projects that I find incredibly interesting and have a lot of fun working on

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EIO • Emmanuel Imolorhe

Me too!
I need to work on managing my emotions in this area, cos once I start feeling not so good about the project, motivation drops, productivity drops and I might get dropped 😅