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by fredley 2600 days ago
If the responsibility lies with everybody, nobody will do it[1]. There must be some rule or process whereby the job of tidying up something becomes a specific person's job - be it if they are committing changes to the same file, or whatever.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
2 comments
shortoncash 2599 days ago
I believe in the code dictator model also. However, the code dictator takes a lot of heat over style opinions. What I see is that, when the dictator emerges, he still has to build coalitions out of people with different skills and different backgrounds. If there's a pool of mediocre or average developers, that is very hard to work around. Only the new people being added can really come pre-loaded with the right code-culture attributes. With non-new people, everyone has to be convinced about the code dictator's approach. This is just not a frictionless process.
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convolvatron 2600 days ago
not necessarily. if we're all working on a code base and reviewing each others work, and we all value cleanliness, things can reach an ok steady state.

you have to establish a cultural habit of tidying up a little when you're in there. often accompanied by a 'wow thats much better, thanks for doing that'.

more importantly you have to foster a sense of ownership. a common issue with the worst organizations I've worked with is fear and lack of understanding. the code isn't something we're shaping together - its just some large and awful monstrosity that bites you every time you get near it. every time you start pulling at a thread the whole thing unravels.

so you restrict your scope to as narrow a window as possible, and make the smallest changes you can to fix the bug or add the feature.

its the difference between living in a pleasant little village or a squalid favela.

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world32 2600 days ago
You expressed what I was trying to get at so perfectly and so much better than I ever did.

This is what I'm talking about. Not just "Hey can I see your codebase? Oh, you don't have 100% test coverage and I've seen some variable names that don't make sense, no thanks bye", which I feel is how some people have interpreted my post but I probably could have made that more clear.

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