April Wensel
@aprilwensel
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Founder of Compassionate Coding | Keynote Speaker | Software Engineer
Encinitas, CA
Joined July 2010
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Last Seen Profiles
Pinned Tweet
📺 The video of my Singapore keynote is up!
"Compassionate Coding: Showing Care Between the Keyboard and the Chair."
Thanks to the
@iosconfsg
organizers and everyone who came up afterward to share kind words and personal stories. 💙
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I learned this week that some younger adults don’t know what burning a CD means, and I’m still having trouble coping. 😳
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One of the most ridiculous attitudes in dev circles is that someone who becomes a manager or even starts slightly caring about human/product issues suddenly isn’t “technical” anymore.
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Couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day.
Thanks for the birthday wishes! 🎉
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I’ve been quiet here, focusing on supporting my clients and local community.
I do miss interacting with you, though. I’m exploring platforms that better support nuance and empathy; I welcome suggestions on that front.
In the meantime, stay safe and hopeful.
💙
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I was at a meetup explaining to someone what I do. I gave a recent example of helping a team with conflicts between designers and developers.
The response: doesn't Figma solve that?
Ha! If only. Figma's great, but if humans are involved, empathy's going to be relevant.
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Someone using my photo without credit is a pretty minor don’t-sweat-the-small-stuff situation, but the time a certain large tech company tried to publish a “Guide to Compassionate Coding” based on my work without credit or permission, that really hurt…
They received a letter.
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“I have always been mystified by the speed with which people condemn one another.…Whenever I am tempted by this…I remember some impulse in myself that could have led me, granted certain circumstances, into the condemned position.”
“Love… is the honoring of others in a way that grants them the grace of their own autonomy and allows mutual discovery.”
From the psychologist turned pioneering sculptor Anne Truitt, a wonderful read on compassion and the cure for self-righteousness:
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If someone has put you in the “non-technical” bucket, there is very little you can do to change their mind.
You can be slinging assembly in front of them, but if you’re also talking about humans and feelings, sorry, non-technical.
We need to move away from these labels…
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“I think of the trees and how simply they let go, let fall the riches of a season, how without grief (it seems) they can let go…
Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain…”
—May Sarton
Today:
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If only every tech interview guide came with a note:
“This will help you navigate broken, outdated hiring practices, but once you’ve succeeded and are hiring, here’s a better way…”
Instead, year after year it’s just more leetcode, trivia, time-consuming take-home projects…
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An engineer on why he doesn’t have to learn how to give compassionate feedback: “I just write what I really want to say and then tell ChatGPT to make it nicer.”
😳
More on this in the latest Compassionate Coding newsletter, which I just sent out. 🗞️
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I’ll miss Women Who Code. 💔
Everyone was welcome—it was just a fun, supportive group.
Hopefully new communities emerge…
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Reflection questions to consider when tempted to start or join a social media pile-on:
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Thanks to everyone who has been interacting with my posts!
Social media can be a drag, but it’s hard to avoid when you’re running a tech-related small business.
Grateful for the support. It helps more than you may realize. 💙
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I am *so* ready to hand these to real live humans at a real live tech event tonight.
💙
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I cut my errands short to get to the ocean when I saw these clouds forming.
Priorities.
😍
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Ok yes, ready to change my profile pic…
I learned this week that some younger adults don’t know what burning a CD means, and I’m still having trouble coping. 😳
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“I’m no great runner, by any means…. But that’s not the point. The point is whether or not I improved over yesterday. In long-distance running the only opponent you have to beat is yourself…”
— Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Today’s trail:
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“[T]he touching human longing for sympathy, that impulse to have our suffering recognized and validated, has grown distorted by a troubling compulsion for broadcast-suffering…[T]he unlucky events of life have become the currency of attention and identification.”
Wonderful lens-clearing and perspective-shift from a Stoic: Marcus Aurelius on the good luck of your bad luck
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This post makes a powerful point.
Challenging the tech stereotypes around personality, interests, and style can be so isolating.
I wonder how many we’ve lost…
I wonder if I could have worked in tech for longer if anyone else’s desk at all looked like this
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I had to pull over to savor this sunrise. 🤩
Safe travels out there!
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In an exciting turn of events, I am headed to Singapore to speak at
@iosconfsg
this week! ✈️
My keynote:
“Compassionate Coding: Showing Care Between the Keyboard and the Chair.”
💙
Thanks to the organizers for bringing the community back together!
I stopped by the peaceful…
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I used to push a little more to stop calling them soft skills so they’d be taken more seriously, but now moving up a level, I’d rather just see everything “soft” receive its due respect.
Human skills aren’t “soft.” They’re essential. The past few years have clearly demonstrated the crucial impact of these skills on innovation, inclusion and wellbeing—an impact that will only increase with the inevitable complexity of the future.
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Sure, there are “meetings that could have been emails,” but there are also emotionally rich face-to-face human conversations that help us avoid misunderstandings, broken relationships, missed opportunities, and months spent moving in the wrong direction.
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“Please…reevaluate your relationship with these platforms. … Do I really need to watch this video or click on this link?”
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Made these deviled potatoes for Easter yesterday that were a hit with non-vegans! 🎉
Recipe below.
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The “passion” for coding discussion is also plagued by binary thinking.
Having passion for the work can feel amazing. And great contributions have been made by passionate devs.
But…companies can take advantage of it, it can lead to burnout, and it isn’t necessary to succeed.
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The awe hits me every time on these trails.
Here’s to the real world.
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Outside of a few scenarios, a resistance to hiring juniors is a red flag.
As far as where it comes from:
- Many developers are just much less interested in anything that’s not directly coding, e.g. nurturing juniors
- Other devs are interested but overextended already; guiding…
I see teams say “we’re not ready to hire juniors yet” a lot.
What do you think is specifically preventing you from it? Lack of senior mentors, documentation, onboarding processes? Something else?
What would you need at minimum to feel ready to hire a junior dev?
RT for reach!
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There’s something peaceful about an empty beach on a rainy day.
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FYI I’m still re-following people!
I unfollowed literally everyone during the pandemic, including IRL friends, because it was just all too much on here.
I focused emotional energy on a few client teams and my local community.
But it’s felt better lately. Ready to re-engage. 👋
I’m adding people back gradually, as I encounter them.
Hopefully you don’t and didn’t take any of this personally, and besides, who knows how long this platform or my account will exist anyway. 🤷🏻♀️
Followed/unfollowed/blocked/muted/deleted/unknown… I still wish you well. 💙
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"Nature has no agenda for us. When we're present with the sights and sounds in any natural setting, we are free to not-do."
—James Baraz, Awakening Joy
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The colors came out right at the end when most people had already left.
Locals know, though—it’s usually worth waiting until after the credits.
🤩
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It was a little jarring to see a post about "how I made over $600K a year working at Meta and you can too" and then watch the hearing on youth mental health damage caused by Facebook.
I really don't know whether people just ignore it or rationalize it or what. It's puzzling…
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Back to my regular picks!
Oranges freshly washed by the rain.
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You’ll have to take my word for it, but the halo was there in real life.
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No way to fully capture the magic, but I had to try.
Happy Sunday! 💙
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“There are no replacements for human connection. The human exchange of physical hugs, empathetic eye contact, understanding responses remind us that we need love, to feel significant, and secure in cultivating trusted relationships.”
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"Of course, if you look around, you can always find something to complain about. But if you do so habitually, that is probably hurting you, bringing down others, and making you a less attractive person to be around."
—Arthur Brooks
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Productive morning. 🍊
All of these came from two trees in someone’s front yard.
Such abundance!
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I couldn’t take my eyes off these fluffy clouds the whole run.
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Every time that I feel pressured to clarify that yes, I still code, I try to add that it shouldn’t determine the level of respect you show someone.
My non-coding or formerly coding friends have valuable insights—even about code topics!
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The adventure continues—I'll be giving a new keynote in Chicago in April!
And I have discount conference tickets to share. 🎟
This one is about embracing change working in tech because it just keeps coming, doesn't it? Can't fight it, but we can learn to ride the waves. 🏄🏻♀️
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Wondering if I can still call it a run if I stop every few feet to take photos. 🤔
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Happy New Year! 🥳
I hope yours is full of love and joy.
I continued my tradition of running a New Year’s race.
Now I can phone it in the rest of the year.
😛
Kidding.
This was in Long Beach, which is also where I gave my first Compassionate Coding presentation in 2016. 💙
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One of my intentions this year is to incorporate more whole food plant-based meals (and cut back a little on the junkier vegan food). First farmers market trip of the year was a success!
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So many wonderful talks today at
#iOSConfSG
. 🎉
One special highlight was the dynamic father-daughter duo
@twostraws
and
@PinkerStraws
speaking on particle systems.
Fun, informative, and inspiring!
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Morning run in another hemisphere.
📍 Melbourne
Looking forward to speaking at the International Conference on Program Comprehension this week!
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“Part of taking care of yourself is finding ways to live consistently with your values.”
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A moment of awe from last night. 🙌
Have a wonderful weekend!
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Great to be back at Harvey Mudd College to speak to a new generation of thoughtful, socially conscious STEM students.
Their new makerspace has electronics benches and 3D printers alongside looms and sewing machines. Bustling with creative energy. (Cool skateboard racks, too.)
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One of the people watching nearby said, “I’m in awe.” That says it all!
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No official fruit pick today, but look what’s right outside my hotel window!
🍊
(I couldn’t help myself. 🤫)
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