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I had a Lead like this. It go to the point where I would spend a significant portion of my working time in existential dread about submitting a PR because I kne

I had a Lead like this. It go to the point where I would spend a significant portion of my working time in existential dread about submitting a PR because I knew they would just rip it to pieces. The worst part was small styling issues that would have been picked up by any linter - but the lead refused any requests for the team to use linting because “we have never used it and everything works fine” I lasted 4 months before resigning but I took longer to get my confidence back.

bewestphal 5y ago
Agreed styling code comments are asinine. Teams need a common linter to leave it to the CI to determine the style, whatever it may be. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.
- jpgvm 5y ago
  I always prefix such comments with "nit" so the owner of the PR knows I'm not saying they should/must make this change to get a +1 from me but that I think it should be considered. That said we already use auto linters and formatters. I am more mindful of my code review comments now that I'm more senior. When it's easy for people to take my words as gospel I much prefer to foster an environment where that isn't the case.
pydry 5y ago
Your lead was a junior. One of the reasons I always fought to have black from almost the day it existed was because (I thought) it would put an end to this type of petty human linting.
- bracketslash 5y ago
  what is “black” in this context?
  - xmcqdpt2 5y ago
    The python formatter, I guess. https://github.com/psf/black https://github.com/psf/black
  - amhoab 5y ago
    https://github.com/psf/black https://github.com/psf/black
- peakaboo 5y ago
  I have to disagree with the view that not using black means the lead is not senior. Being senior means you understand the tradeoffs and you make your own decision. If you ask a senior why he choose not to use kubernetes, you will get a bunch of real reasons. If you ask a junior the same, he won't have a good answer because he lacks experience with the pros and cons.
  - nucleogenesis 5y ago
    Right and “we don’t need to use black because we haven’t yet and things work fine” is a bad response that dismisses the real needs and concerns of others on the team when they’re saying “things aren’t fine we want computers to handle the nitpicks from here”. I wouldn’t say it indicates junior tech skills but it’s a sign of junior management skills.
    - Aqueous 5y ago
      I would say it indicates junior tech skills as well. If the value of the linter isn’t self evident to him he is a junior.
  - pydry 5y ago
    >I have to disagree with the view that not using black means the lead is not senior. I disagree with this straw man too. It's the code review focus on small almost irrelevant stylistic details that signals a lack of experience.
tossaway9000 5y ago
I don't know why someone would want to waste time arguing about code style. Standardizing on things like `cargo fmt`, `go fmt`, and `terraform fmt` remove a ton of nitpicking out the gate. The javascript world can't seem to make up their mind though (jslint is rarely used these days, jshint died, I think eslint is the thing now?)
- Hasnep 5y ago
  Eslint is a linter, the most common formatter for JS that I've seen is Prettier.
solididiot 5y ago
Your lead was an immature ars$ who saw the PR review as a way to exercise power. I'm quite sure that there was very little actual value in his pedantic bs but probably he sold that to his manager as "QA gatekeeping" or something equally well sounded. In reality all he's doing is slowing everything down, wrecking morale and piss around to mark his territory like a primate. It also speaks volumes about the company - not a place I'd like to be and probably not a place producing too much value.

bewestphal 5y ago

Agreed styling code comments are asinine. Teams need a common linter to leave it to the CI to determine the style, whatever it may be. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.

jpgvm 5y ago
I always prefix such comments with "nit" so the owner of the PR knows I'm not saying they should/must make this change to get a +1 from me but that I think it should be considered. That said we already use auto linters and formatters. I am more mindful of my code review comments now that I'm more senior. When it's easy for people to take my words as gospel I much prefer to foster an environment where that isn't the case.

pydry 5y ago

Your lead was a junior. One of the reasons I always fought to have black from almost the day it existed was because (I thought) it would put an end to this type of petty human linting.

bracketslash 5y ago
what is “black” in this context?
- xmcqdpt2 5y ago
  The python formatter, I guess. https://github.com/psf/black https://github.com/psf/black
- amhoab 5y ago
  https://github.com/psf/black https://github.com/psf/black
peakaboo 5y ago
I have to disagree with the view that not using black means the lead is not senior. Being senior means you understand the tradeoffs and you make your own decision. If you ask a senior why he choose not to use kubernetes, you will get a bunch of real reasons. If you ask a junior the same, he won't have a good answer because he lacks experience with the pros and cons.
- nucleogenesis 5y ago
  Right and “we don’t need to use black because we haven’t yet and things work fine” is a bad response that dismisses the real needs and concerns of others on the team when they’re saying “things aren’t fine we want computers to handle the nitpicks from here”. I wouldn’t say it indicates junior tech skills but it’s a sign of junior management skills.
  - Aqueous 5y ago
    I would say it indicates junior tech skills as well. If the value of the linter isn’t self evident to him he is a junior.
- pydry 5y ago
  >I have to disagree with the view that not using black means the lead is not senior. I disagree with this straw man too. It's the code review focus on small almost irrelevant stylistic details that signals a lack of experience.

tossaway9000 5y ago

I don't know why someone would want to waste time arguing about code style. Standardizing on things like `cargo fmt`, `go fmt`, and `terraform fmt` remove a ton of nitpicking out the gate. The javascript world can't seem to make up their mind though (jslint is rarely used these days, jshint died, I think eslint is the thing now?)

Hasnep 5y ago
Eslint is a linter, the most common formatter for JS that I've seen is Prettier.

solididiot 5y ago

Your lead was an immature ars$ who saw the PR review as a way to exercise power. I'm quite sure that there was very little actual value in his pedantic bs but probably he sold that to his manager as "QA gatekeeping" or something equally well sounded. In reality all he's doing is slowing everything down, wrecking morale and piss around to mark his territory like a primate. It also speaks volumes about the company - not a place I'd like to be and probably not a place producing too much value.