We are ruthless on code reviews
techblog.workiva.com
We are ruthless on code reviews
1–10 of 72 posts
Re: We are ruthless on code reviews
#2I love working in environments like this. I can say hands down they were my most productive years as a programmer.
Quality code review is the single most important trait of a high performing senior programmer.
Re: We are ruthless on code reviews
#3If it's anything like where I work, some people come in for more ruthlessness than others. Some are more equal than others, if you will. New people or those deemed unworthy will receive the full brunt of scrutiny, to the point of bare-faced pedantry. Those who are golden are given the benefit of the doubt. You can probably tell which one I am. It gets really old to see this time and again, and to see the team pat themselves on the back for being "ruthless".
Re: We are ruthless on code reviews
#4If it's anything like where I work, some people come in for more ruthlessness than others. Some are more equal than others, if you will. New people or those deemed unworthy will receive the full brunt of scrutiny, to the point of bare-faced pedantry. Those who are golden are given the benefit of the doubt. You can probably tell which one I am. It gets really old to see this time and again, and to see the team pat the…
That's a failure of your team lead. Tough code reviews are important, but I don't tolerate people being petty or nasty. We actually train new employees on how we like to do reviews.
If I see people being given the benefit of the doubt, I call out other senior engineers. If I see people ganging up on a new person, I do the same.
A quote I've always heard, is generally when someone talks about how "brutally honest" they are, they enjoy the brutality more than the honesty. I filter for the latter, and come down hard on the former.
Re: We are ruthless on code reviews
#5If it's anything like where I work, some people come in for more ruthlessness than others. Some are more equal than others, if you will. New people or those deemed unworthy will receive the full brunt of scrutiny, to the point of bare-faced pedantry. Those who are golden are given the benefit of the doubt. You can probably tell which one I am. It gets really old to see this time and again, and to see the team pat the…
Playing devil's advocate here: The only way to really learn the full ruleset of a team is by undergoing a couple of code reviews in which every issue is pointed out. Once your teammates see you've understood the prevailing style, they don't have to work as hard at code reviews.
That said, I usually hate petty/nitpicky code reviews. I try to focus only on issues that I think affect readability, maintainability or functionality.
Re: We are ruthless on code reviews
#6If you've got time to dream up ways to be witty in order to be snarky to a co-worker, then you've got too much time on your hands at work and clearly need to fill it with other responsibilities.
Re: We are ruthless on code reviews
#7Yet despite being assholes (ruthless in their parlance) who obviously have not on-boarded said employee or even told him what is expected of his code, I doubt their software has any less bugs than the software from shops who are not assholes (ruthless in their parlance). Sounds like a great reason to avoid working here and other places that have the same mentality. If you want your coworkers to actually do their work, it's a really good idea not to be an asshole because it's incredibly easy to get away with not doing shit in tech while seeming to do so and after awhile, most people will switch to that mode when berated long enough. I can't blame them. Employers deserve no loyalty in the US these days because they don't give any.
Re: We are ruthless on code reviews
#8If it's anything like where I work, some people come in for more ruthlessness than others. Some are more equal than others, if you will. New people or those deemed unworthy will receive the full brunt of scrutiny, to the point of bare-faced pedantry. Those who are golden are given the benefit of the doubt. You can probably tell which one I am. It gets really old to see this time and again, and to see the team pat the…
Playing devil's advocate here: The only way to really learn the full ruleset of a team is by undergoing a couple of code reviews in which every issue is pointed out. Once your teammates see you've understood the prevailing style, they don't have to work as hard at code reviews. That said, I usually hate petty/nitpicky code reviews. I try to focus only on issues that I think affect readability, maintainability or func…
Makes sense, but there are ways of being even petty and nitpicky without being condescending or rude. State facts, don't throw insults, don't demean or belittle.
Re: We are ruthless on code reviews
#9The whole "we are so cool because we are ruthless. Merciless, I tell you! Once you get through our code review your code will be perfect." attitude of this article is a bit surprising for one ranked so highly on HN. Do people really prefer this kind of attitude? Bender GIFs and snarky comments can become quickly tiring.
I personally would strongly prefer if they put it in milder technical terms, "We are very conservative with deviations from our preferred code style and conventions". I suppose that wouldn't be as click-baity, but for me (and I suspect a lot of other people) it would be easier to appreciate, since we understand that being conservative before accepting commits leads to a well-groomed codebase.
Re: We are ruthless on code reviews
#10If you've got time to dream up ways to be witty in order to be snarky to a co-worker, then you've got too much time on your hands at work and clearly need to fill it with other responsibilities.
I would hazard a guess that this letter was to a hypothetical employee, rather than for a real situation. And its purpose was to illustrate the type of code review new employees can expect and are expected to give, in a whimsical way. I quite liked it.