Maybe the tone doesn't translate but this guy sounds insanely egotistical. I feel truly bad for his family and anyone he works with.
I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry
51–60 of 199 posts
Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry
#52Nothing 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 for some time to walk through what you've done with someone.
I've been on the receiving end of enough toxic code reviews to develop an aversion to do them. So when asked to do them, I really just ask, did you test it?, do you want to demo it to me?, then approve it.
When people demo to me, I can see their pain points, because they always point them out. "Oh yeah, I was having trouble getting this to work, as you can see, it's still a little slow" and it gives them an opportunity to ask for advice or merely to vent.
So if you want good, honest feedback, a demo is the way to go. Honestly, it's hard to really grok what a bit of code is doing just by reading it. And who has time to pull code and run through it solo when doing a review?
Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry
#53Nothing 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…
Not only that, but the title of the post is, "I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry". This person is so confident in himself, that he thinks his code review takedowns are so brutal, yet effective, that he is ruining lives. It almost comes off as "I'm so handsome that I ruin people's lives with my looks and I'm sorry." And then there is this... "I was mad that, while I spent my nights learning F#…
I took "ruin developers' lives" to refer to helping get team members fired, but maybe I'm giving the author the benefit of the doubt.
Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry
#54Nothing 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…
Yeah this can be quite frustrating.
I've had the same thing the other way, where I feel that I usually give kind and fair code reviews (no nitpicking, etc) but have had former colleagues that get genuinely upset and push back really hard when I make any sort of comment on their PR.
Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry
#55Nothing 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…
> excessive amount of criticism on working code
Because it creates technical debt, that's why people get frustrated with shit code. They just aren't properly equipped how to convey/teach/train/fix it without coming across like an asshole.
Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry
#56In my estimation, most places have the opposite problem: everybody approves the code without looking through it, and the only comments that are left are stylistic problems.
Good code reviews spot real bugs and provide solutions and explanations that help the owner to improve their branch. It's completely constructive and feels like going out of your way to way to help them and paying attention to what is meaningful -- the vibe should be a bit like "doorman at a posh hotel providing excellent service", so not disrespectful at all. Also, if you're nitpicking, it's a sign of lack of focus...
Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry
#57Nothing 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.
I think part of the problem with the bullying described in the article and the "approve everything" approach starts with the framing of code reviews.
Instead of "please write this code, submit a pull request, and I'll tell you what you did wrong," I have recently been saying to new coders "take a shot at this problem, and when you've got something working let's get together and refine it, there is some context it will take time to learn so we'll probably need to make a lot of changes or even rewrite it before release."
That way they know what's coming (a lot of changes), they know why it isn't a sign they're inadequate, and it's more about working together than passing judgment.
It has also helped reduce the massive delays while junior developers agonize over making something perfect.
Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
My reaction to this was that this guy should not be making code reviews ever. That emotional reaction in combination with conviction everyone has the same one disqualify him.
I wouldn't even want that guy on my team as a junior, because he's a headache waiting for a place to happen.
I'd expect a neatly-worded blogpost on the company Medium: "I Destroyed Our 55m User Database, But Here's What I Learned:"
Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry
#59> If a guy brings me his code, and it has mistakes, it brings insane pleasure from how smart I feel [...] And if you tell me that you haven’t had this feeling ever, then you’re lying. Tell me about higher goals, training rookies and all that — I know you’re simply too full of themselves. And if you try to tell me that you learned to defeat that feeling (however it manifests in you), then I must be a pink unicorn. I r…
It is possible that the person is accidentally projecting their internal state as a model of how other people feel when they do code review. It's easy to accidentally fall into that trap. I've probably made that mistake before.
The truth is that people's emotions can be a lot more different from yours than people may be willing to imagine.
No one is perfect. But not everyone derives 'insane pleasure' from criticizing, either. And if you do, that may not be obvious.
I agree with the 'stop being an asshole' line, but to do that we need to help people realize when their qualia is way out of the ordinary. If you think everyone else is power-tripping, too, then will you think you're really being an asshole, or are you just doing what everyone else does?
It's scary to think that you might have something else you think everyone else does, but is really just you accidentally being oblivious. Speaking for myself, I'm going to try to be more mindful of this trap in the future.
Re: I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry
#60Nothing 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…
Not only that, but the title of the post is, "I ruin developers’ lives with my code reviews and I'm sorry". This person is so confident in himself, that he thinks his code review takedowns are so brutal, yet effective, that he is ruining lives. It almost comes off as "I'm so handsome that I ruin people's lives with my looks and I'm sorry." And then there is this... "I was mad that, while I spent my nights learning F#…
I had the opposite reading. It feels obvious he's creating a caricature, some of which is exaggerated, some of which is truthful of not just him, but other developers.
The recounting of "bullying"/hazing on forums definitely resonates as well, and he's just remarking that he'd become what he'd hated.
This is more of a reflective piece rather than a glorification of his behavior.
>> My personality today isn’t my disease. It’s a disease of the whole industry... just stop being that. It’s quite easy, actually.