April Wensel: "Better People”
This Week's Guest: April Wensel
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Our next guest tells us that between overworking, sterotypes, burnout, and bias, there's a growing hunger among software developers for more compassion (even if it's just the compassion toward yourself needed to prevent your own burnout). April Wensel is another one of our younger guests, but one who’s seen so much of the underbelly of tech and done so much to fix it that we couldn’t wait to share her story with you.
April is the founder of Compassionate Coding, a consultancy that trains software development teams in emotional intelligence skills.
She shares the story of the bias and lack of compassion that she encountered starting her own programming career, and how, instead of force-fitting herself into an environment that wasn’t created with her in mind, she made “the empowering choice” and created her own environment: her company that teaches emotional intelligence and ethics in tech.
LINKS AND ARTICLES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
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
More About Our Guest
Founder of Compassionate Coding
April participating in an Internet-of-Things hackathon
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 has spent the past decade as a software engineer and technical leader at various startups in Silicon Valley, building products in such fields as healthcare, education, gaming, and user research. 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 not coding or speaking, she enjoys writing, running ultramarathons, and experimenting with vegan recipes.
