Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We are ruthless on code reviews

techblog.workiva.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 72 posts

Re: We are ruthless on code reviews

#41

Post by cpks »

brandmeyer wrote: post #32
auggierose wrote: post #28

It always astonished me how delicate coders in the UK are (I am from Germany, working in the UK currently). During a team meeting at a former company, my "ruthlessness" was brought up as a negativism. I countered that (or so I thought) with the following question to the rest of the coder team: "Do you want me to point out problems I perceive with the code / approach / whatever, or do you want me to hold back in order…

There is another side to this. I've seen a ton of technical criticism get delivered with emotionally laden commentary. X is "totally broken", "crap", "not even wrong", "just wrong", "terrible", etc. There is a way to deliver criticism while maintaining an environment of common professional respect. Many people don't even try. With the caveat that I'm painting with a culturally biased brush, I've found Germans (and Fi…

And conversely, I've seen people from cultures with different communications styles substantially and unfairly discriminated in the industry for not matching 2016 American business culture. I've found Germans (and Finns!) to be particularly discriminated in this regard, primarily because those are highly technical cultures, but with different communication styles. However, anyone who grew up in the inner city, in African American culture, in Irish Catholic culture, etc. is likewise stigmatized and labeled as rude due to what is a cultural communications difference.

Re: We are ruthless on code reviews

#43

Post by cpjk »

gjolund wrote: post #2

I 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.

My first internship was like this. I loved it. It provided me with instant feedback on my code and as a result the quality of my code went from probably pretty low to as good as I could make it.

Having now worked at other places where code review is given low priority, I can say with confidence that I don't want to work anywhere that does not do serious code review.

Code review provides an important mentorship opportunity for junior programmers, and provides a simple way to keep code quality high and consistent. In addition, it provides a simple way to instruct new hires on internal style and conventions.

Re: We are ruthless on code reviews

#44

Post by lcfcjs »

The code review process at my last job completely ripped the company apart. It has to be handled with a ton of consideration. Especially, if you are trying to communicate in comments on a Pull Request (and the developer is remote).

It needs to be a learning experience, rather than a bollocking of a lesser individual. There is a good way to suggest changes, and a bad way. Developers are so often terrible at communication.

Re: We are ruthless on code reviews

#45

Post by cpjk »

scolfax wrote: post #18

- If this post is satire, it's hilarious and spot-on! - If this is real, quit while you can, and may god have mercy on your soul. - The fact that it's difficult to tell if it's real or not says a lot about our industry.

It's not satire, it's hypothetical.

Re: We are ruthless on code reviews

#46

Post by gdulli »

auggierose wrote: post #28

It always astonished me how delicate coders in the UK are (I am from Germany, working in the UK currently). During a team meeting at a former company, my "ruthlessness" was brought up as a negativism. I countered that (or so I thought) with the following question to the rest of the coder team: "Do you want me to point out problems I perceive with the code / approach / whatever, or do you want me to hold back in order…

Programming tends to attract a lot of people who are smart but too young to have wisdom. The kind of wisdom that tells one when it's worthwhile to be ruthless and when it's just pedantry, self-defeating, etc.

The kind of wisdom that keeps one from positing that the people who don't see things their way are delicate.

Re: We are ruthless on code reviews

#47

Post by goldenkey »

cpjk wrote: post #45
scolfax wrote: post #18

- If this post is satire, it's hilarious and spot-on! - If this is real, quit while you can, and may god have mercy on your soul. - The fact that it's difficult to tell if it's real or not says a lot about our industry.

It's not satire, it's hypothetical.

It reeks of humble bragging and pretentiousness. The Dark Souls analogy just tops it off...

Re: We are ruthless on code reviews

#48

Post by burkaman »

skellington wrote: post #37
auggierose wrote: post #28

It always astonished me how delicate coders in the UK are (I am from Germany, working in the UK currently). During a team meeting at a former company, my "ruthlessness" was brought up as a negativism. I countered that (or so I thought) with the following question to the rest of the coder team: "Do you want me to point out problems I perceive with the code / approach / whatever, or do you want me to hold back in order…

It's interesting that even your comment is getting down voted. I wonder if it's a millennial thing? It would be interesting to know the ages of the people here commenting on how "harsh" the post seems vs. "yeah that's great." I read the post as going out of it's way to give praise while pointing out what the company requires (perhaps that is interpreted as patronizing). But many people here are commenting on how rude…

Yes, it's extremely patronizing. A better email might be:

"Hey, sorry if that code review seemed a little nitpicky. You did a great job, but we try to be as strict and consistent as possible in our reviews, for everyone's benefit. Here's a link to our style guide, and please let me know if you have any questions. I'll stop by your desk in a little bit to introduce myself and see how you're doing."

You don't need any exclamation points, and you don't need to talk about how unique and amazing your company is. Treat your colleagues like colleagues, not insecure undergrads.

Re: We are ruthless on code reviews

#49

Post by cpjk »

goldenkey wrote: post #47
cpjk wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not satire, it's hypothetical.

It reeks of humble bragging and pretentiousness. The Dark Souls analogy just tops it off...

Reading it again, I can see that. However, I personally am a fan of rigorous - not ruthless - code review, the purpose and level of which has previously been explained to a new employee.

Obviously being an asshole is out of line, and if someone is being a dick in code review, that's a problem with the reviewer. But I think that being rigorous about maintaining consistency and quality is important.

Re: We are ruthless on code reviews

#50

Post by Ensorceled »

crdoconnor wrote: post #29

>I don’t mean we’re mean-spirited. I just mean that we are merciless. You’ll notice that I left the comment “Beep!” on the imports of every file you touched. What I meant was, “ Your imports violate our standard convention—we order them by built-ins, then third party, and then project level ,” but that was too much to type on every file. Translation: "We have extremely strong opinions on what materials to use for our…

Until the first time you spend a couple of hours looking for a weird bug in Python because somebody broke this rule...
Post reply on HN