Slightly Nerdy

programming

I've often heard code review spoken of as a chore, and have witnessed (and myself been guilty of) reviews that reflect this attitude. Cursory skims of the proposed changes, nitpicking small but obvious faults, rushing to get the review done to move on to matters more pressing.

But this attitude, or culture where it's pervasive, denies the reviewer a great opportunity to learn.

As someone a couple of decades in to my career, I've noticed that whilst I still get excited to learn a new tool, it can be easy to overlook how the tools I'm most comfortable and familiar with continue to evolve.

I've found myself learning new things about the tools I thought I knew best whilst reviewing the code of someone who's earlier in that journey and discovering all the features of those tools for the first time as they are today, and that's brilliant!

Code review is also a great opportunity to get some insight into how other folks think and solve problems. Doing my job well as a reviewer demands that I understand the problem being solved, and is often rewarded by discovering an approach or techniques I may never have considered.

Regardless of experience, we have so much to learn from each other. So make time for and give reverence to your code reviews. And if your organisation doesn't allow for that, that sucks! If you're able, find one that does.

#codereview #programming