| I was considering elaborating on this point in the post, but the post was long enough already. So I decided to keep it out. But I think this is a very important point. (1) you really don't know what conditions caused the code to become bad There is totally a spectrum all the way from laziness to understandably tight deadlines to unreasonable deadlines. You totally hit the nail on the head. There is a lot more context surrounding why code is written the way it is than just "This guy/gal is horrible". (2) it means you make an enemy of the one person who can help you out There are peers of mine that I look up to, that I consistently am impressed with and they continually push me to be a better developer. The funny (and slightly embarrassing) thing is that for most of them that I met early on I thought were idiots. The favorite phrase "You're doing it wrong!" I'm lucky that I kept my mouth shut and honestly tried to digest their perspectives/opinions. Now I may still disagree with them, but it's from a place of respect, not out of condescension. I joke with one of my favorite coders, https://twitter.com/#!/bkeepers , that the first time I met him I thought "This dude is a complete asshole." And I ignored him for months afterwards. That was all from my own insecurity. Brandon is a hella smart and nice guy. |