We don't code for the compiler. We code for people. When we anchor our software development on the perspectives of others, we realize tremendous benefits: cleaner code, lower technical debt, faster feature development, improved collaboration, increased morale, reduced bias and harm, less legacy code, and more nimble architecture, just to name a few. In this presentation, participants will explore ways to make empathy executable by learning to:

* Identify opportunities to apply empathy throughout daily development practices

* Use technical empathy skills to enhance code maintainability

* Collaborate with others and provide effective feedback

* Implement communication and empathy frameworks to reduce cognitive load

* Explore empathy concepts using software development metaphors

This talk can be adapted to be a keynote or workshop. It is geared towards people who spend most of their time writing code and is accessible to people who don't. Versions of this talk have been presented at Deliver: Agile, XP Agile, QCon, DDDEurope, Agile Greece, Agile Serbia, GLA Summit, CTO Summit, .NET Fringe, Ruby Nation, and more.