I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry • Hacker News Board

backoncemore wrote: post #9

Nothing makes working at a place more unbearable than having to deal with someone that gives an excessive amount of criticism on working code, at least that's how I feel. I've been in that situation before and it made me never want to submit pull requests. It made me even madder when other developers, whose code was no better than mine but had been at the company longer, received basically no critiques. Some might sa…

you sound like a loser and probably a terrible developer. cry more

Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry

#25

Post by mmmpop » Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 8:09 PM UTC

billycorben2 wrote: post #16

backoncemore wrote: post #9

Nothing makes working at a place more unbearable than having to deal with someone that gives an excessive amount of criticism on working code, at least that's how I feel. I've been in that situation before and it made me never want to submit pull requests. It made me even madder when other developers, whose code was no better than mine but had been at the company longer, received basically no critiques. Some might sa…

Strange, I’m on a team rn with people who just approve everything. I’m craving some constructive feedback.

Maybe you just write incredible code the first time, every time? Can't discount the possibility!

Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry

#26

Post by fayten » Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 8:10 PM UTC

fernandotakai wrote: post #6

blahyawnblah wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have to "destroy" every PR from a developer, you're wasting more time (money) than it would take to replace them. Why should be bad PRs ever be allowed for any reason?

bad PRs shouldn't be allowed, but you don't have to be a smug a-hole while reviewing PRs. hell, that's a GREAT opportunity to get this "bad developer" under your umbrella and start mentoring him to be a better developer.

Yup! I have been very fortunate to work with extremely kind and empathetic senior engineers in the past. They have done wonderful jobs at using the code review process to teach instead of tear anyone down. I am always shocked at how many programmers become so aggressive about development. It might be silly, but I think the xkcd comic Ten Thousand is a great mantra: https://xkcd.com/1053/

Teaching people cool new ways to code should be fun, not an exercise in showing everyone the size of your ego.

Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry

#27

Post by backoncemore » Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 8:10 PM UTC

billycorben2 wrote: post #16

backoncemore wrote: post #9

Nothing makes working at a place more unbearable than having to deal with someone that gives an excessive amount of criticism on working code, at least that's how I feel. I've been in that situation before and it made me never want to submit pull requests. It made me even madder when other developers, whose code was no better than mine but had been at the company longer, received basically no critiques. Some might sa…

Strange, I’m on a team rn with people who just approve everything. I’m craving some constructive feedback.

The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. Too laissez-faire and you end up with a ball of mud.

Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry

#28

Post by some_furry » Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 8:10 PM UTC

billycorben2 wrote: post #16

backoncemore wrote: post #9

Nothing makes working at a place more unbearable than having to deal with someone that gives an excessive amount of criticism on working code, at least that's how I feel. I've been in that situation before and it made me never want to submit pull requests. It made me even madder when other developers, whose code was no better than mine but had been at the company longer, received basically no critiques. Some might sa…

Strange, I’m on a team rn with people who just approve everything. I’m craving some constructive feedback.

Ask a security engineer.

Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry

#29

Post by tornato7 » Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 8:12 PM UTC

I had an incident many years ago where I found glaring design flaws in a much more senior developer's code, and, overcome with some feeling of superiority, left a million nitpicky comments and a snide summary, then posted on our team chat "left a review". Finally, I was getting back at all the senior developers who had torn apart my code. I later realized my comments were mean and I apologized. While you could still potentially call it constructive criticism, there is a difference between mean criticism and polite criticism.

I do think thorough feedback is important, that's how I've learned the most after all. But typically now if I I'm going to write more than 5 comments, I meet with the other developer in person instead. That way the code problems are solved faster and it avoids any sort of public humiliation.

Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry

#30

Post by mjlawson » Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 8:12 PM UTC

blahyawnblah wrote: post #5

lhorie wrote: post #2

Congrats to the author for realizing that confidence doesn't equate skill. This isn't being a pink unicorn, it's simply humility. The real danger of confusing the two is that real skill dulls if you let overconfidence take over, since the very thought of being "better than others" prevents you from accepting that maybe there are things that you don't know or haven't considered. For example, is "destroying" a coworker…

If you have to "destroy" every PR from a developer, you're wasting more time (money) than it would take to replace them. Why should be bad PRs ever be allowed for any reason?

When you're in these situations, you are faced with a challenge which isn't solved by code reviews no matter how illustrative, nice, or demeaning they are.

It's first solved by identifying what the cause is of their poor performance. Are they in over their head? Are they having personal problems which are distracting them? Are they experiencing burnout?

I've heard people say that they enjoy code reviews because it gives them latitude to be ruthless. After all, it's for the benefit of the business to not allow suboptimal code through, and it's just code. But frankly, I think that's a lame excuse and the easy way out.

There are people behind code, and while the code might suck, the people don't. Obviously, that doesn't mean you should let it through, but it does mean you should be at least professional, and preferably compassionate in how you review it.