The code culture problem

However, I find that it's more helpful to have a positive attitude when reading code I didn't write. "Why did he write it this weird way?" taught me so much more than "this is shit, let me rewrite it the way I'm familiar with".

I'm not denying that I found seriously bad code running in production. And I'm not denying that it's more common that I would've believed. But the moment I start treating every piece of foreign code as shit, I'll miss out on interesting insightful techniques.

The point of this article is a reminder that it's easy to get sucked in the "this is shit" culture.

As a junior coder earlier in my career I found exactly the situation described. A co-worker was always griping loudly about how bad the code and architectural decisions of certain people supposedly were - all except his own, of course.

At first I was too diffident to form an opinion and considered whether he might be right. When I gained more experience, and finally got a look at what he was ranting about, it seemed to me that this guy's targets were not so bad and that his own output was hardly more impressive.

Eventually I saw other examples of this pattern and realized something: those who bluster in this way tend to be middle-range developers who are trying to cover up their own insecurities - while those who are really superior tend to be quieter, more businesslike and basically getting things done, and well, while those described above are going on in their "BS" sessions.

I don't claim to qualify for the latter group to the degree I would like, but when I hear the denigration, I ask what are the specific problems and what do we propose to do about them. And I try to promote a positive atmosphere, and really learn the code rather than just looking for where to put more duct tape.

It's like the friend who complains about everything all the time: constantly complaining about traffic, about the weather, about how the city is losing its charm, about his job, about his classes, about his parents, about his car, about his apartment, about politics, about how stupid people are, etc. etc., with nothing positive to say. Maybe it's all correct from some perspective, but it's not a very useful perspective and it's definitely an annoying one to be around.

I'm sorry, I respect your experience but this post is completely uninformative. It's much more specific on how awesome you are than on how to distinguish between "shit code written by shit coders" and "less than optimal code written by good coders"; not to mention dealing with and improving either.

It's possible to spend a long time in an industry and accumulate much unfounded prejudice along with solid knowledge. As long as the appreciation of "shit code" and "shit coders" remains subjective, it's virtually certain you'll also be considered one someday, when the prevailing paradigms and fashions change again.