Debugging our Feelings: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Developers

A presentation at Peers Conference in April 2017 in Seattle, WA, USA by Jamie Strachan

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Debugging Our Feelings @ jamiestrachan

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C ognitive B ehavioural T herapy

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Experiences Responses

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Experiences Responses Thoughts

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“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so ” Hamlet (act 2, scene 2)

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Experiences Responses Thoughts We can change how we feel if we change how we think

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Experiences Responses Thoughts Input Output Code

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Experiences Responses Thoughts Input Output Code

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Experiences Responses Thoughts Input Output Code

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Experiences Responses Thoughts Input Output Code

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Test our output Trust our feelings

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Emotional Reasoning

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Don’t trust your feelings Test your feelings

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Feelings should be: • Positive

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Feelings should be: • Helpful • Reasonable • Rational

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Mind Reading

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All

or

Nothing Thinking

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Antiperfectionism Sheet Ta s k Effectiveness Satisfaction

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Antiperfectionism Sheet Ta s k Effectiveness Satisfaction Submit pull request 60% 85% Demo to client 40% 80%

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Testing helps identify problems but doesn’t fix them

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Experiences Responses Thoughts

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Experience Thoughts

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Labeling

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Magnification and Minification

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Disqualifying the Positive

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Accepting a compliment: 1. Pause 2. Say “thank you”

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Test your feelings 2. Get your thoughts out of your head 3. Get help We can change how we feel if we change how we think @ jamiestrachan