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I think it may be a good thing to agree on what good manners are. I almost wish there was some sort of standard practice on this. I know when I was starting ou

I think it may be a good thing to agree on what good manners are. I almost wish there was some sort of standard practice on this. I know when I was starting out my career I had no idea what good manners were. One time at a milestone review I simply said: "I had to rewrite X's first pass he was using some older tech and there's better ways of doing it now." and it really blew up. My boss took me in his office afterwards and told me that probably wasn't the right thing to say that I had in fact insulted the other guy and he was hurt. Believe me it was never my intention to hurt anyone I was just stating what I did and what I knew. I apologized and we got along afterwards no harm in the long run. That incident taught me to always be wary of corrections or talking about someone else's work. They put their heart and soul into what they do and I should respect their code and them.

chahex 11y ago
It is people that put their hearts into the work that made great things. Being polite should a technique rather than principal; if deeply in one's heart it is to make a great product. Also, when it's appropriate why not be rude to make things moving? Isn't it like the relationship of summer sunshine and winter snow; people perceive things based on different perspectives, as long as it's a natural reaction, why should we bother. I'd rather take candor rudeness than seemingly polite pretending. But of course, vice versa.
simoncion 11y ago
> I simply said: "I had to rewrite X's first pass he was using some older tech and there's better ways of doing it now." ... My boss ... told me that ... I had in fact insulted the other guy... ...what? The other guy is too attached to his code. > [People] put their heart and soul into what they do and I should respect their code and them. One thing that every good programmer has to learn to do is to be able to disentangle one's ego from one's code. It's very good to be proud of one's accomplishments. It's bad to become so attached to one's work that one suffers injury from criticism of or attempts to improve the work. If you love your code too much, it'll be harder for you to see (or let others help you see) where it needs improvement and when it needs to be thrown away.

chahex 11y ago

It is people that put their hearts into the work that made great things. Being polite should a technique rather than principal; if deeply in one's heart it is to make a great product. Also, when it's appropriate why not be rude to make things moving? Isn't it like the relationship of summer sunshine and winter snow; people perceive things based on different perspectives, as long as it's a natural reaction, why should we bother. I'd rather take candor rudeness than seemingly polite pretending. But of course, vice versa.

simoncion 11y ago

> I simply said: "I had to rewrite X's first pass he was using some older tech and there's better ways of doing it now." ... My boss ... told me that ... I had in fact insulted the other guy... ...what? The other guy is too attached to his code. > [People] put their heart and soul into what they do and I should respect their code and them. One thing that every good programmer has to learn to do is to be able to disentangle one's ego from one's code. It's very good to be proud of one's accomplishments. It's bad to become so attached to one's work that one suffers injury from criticism of or attempts to improve the work. If you love your code too much, it'll be harder for you to see (or let others help you see) where it needs improvement and when it needs to be thrown away.