Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Buttons840 1965 days ago
I've always wondered if a developer who gets shit done would be offended if I told them what they've done is shit.
2 comments

Yes, they do get offended. I've done that before because the code was shit. I appreciated that he got it done faster than I would have, but I didn't appreciate that:

1. He wouldn't clean it up.

2. I had to clean it up (it needed to be kept around and extended).

3. He got all the credit even though his was an unmaintainable, unextendible (necessary for the effort, not just a want) mess.

4. I was the one who, after cleaning it up, actually made it a deliverable and added the critical missing parts (around extensibility).

Really depends on how much trust and empathy there's in the team.. I say my stuff is shit all the time and am okay w/ others saying it too in the context of my team.

If a random person emails me saying my code is shit -- not so well as I lack rapport w/ them. But, if random person emails me saying why my code isn't ideal and how I could improve, that would be awesome