Comments on: on being a bit of an idiot

By: Verity Stob

Verity Stob — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:56:51 +0000

Re: Code written for .EXE

How come the so-called ‘editorial process’ didn’t pick up the bugs in your program?

What I think you are really saying is that you had a bad experience on a poor quality publication. You shouldn’t let this affect your approach to life… except, perhaps, to be more careful where you work. The riches that junk mags such as .EXE offer are not everything, you know. There is such a thing as integrity.

– Concerned Admirer

By: Dave G

Dave G — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:27:18 +0000

I’m not Dave Green, FTR.

By: Phil Gyford

Phil Gyford — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:33:13 +0000

For the past few years while I’ve been doing this acting stuff I’ve been failing miserably at finding witty and illuminating parallels between the geek and theatre worlds. But your description of code feedback is just like feedback from acting teachers, who will (generally) tell you everything you did wrong. Maybe after an initial “Hmm, not bad…” to make them sound less harsh. Their reasoning being, I think, that you *know* what you did right so you don’t need someone else to tell you.

By: Danny O'Brien

Danny O'Brien — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:03:05 +0000

Another impostor: there’s usually at least four or five fake Dave Greens around, including the inherited line of “Anti-Dave”s in Avignon, France.

By: L.

L. — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:29:10 +0000

@Dave G…

Dave Green? rumours of your demise have been greatly exaggerated, then. (in dobbin’s OpenTech video.)

By: Collin Cusce

Collin Cusce — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:49:47 +0000

Excellent post! Code is extremely personal. When someone reads your code it often feels like someone reading your journal.

By: Dave G

Dave G — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:45:58 +0000

In my experience, when someone solicits “feedback” or “comments and criticism” from their peers on some work they’ve done, what they’re often really soliciting is praise and compliments. They think that their design document or class library or user documentation is simply brilliant, and they want everyone else to behold its glory and affirm how magnificent it is. If someone offers genuine constructive criticism, they’ll get defensive and argumentative and will show little interest in actually incorporating the feedback into their work.

By: Danny O'Brien

Danny O'Brien — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:09:20 +0000

Dave, thanks!

Paulo — I’m always a bit sceptical of that sort of advice, if only because I instantly think of writing stuff like “Could you think of some other, less godawful way of iterating this list?”

By: Paulo Eduardo Neves

Paulo Eduardo Neves — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:53:15 +0000

Weinberg has a good suggestion about the best wording in code reviews. Always raise your points asking a question. Instead of writing “this variable name sucks”, write “Can you imagine a more informative name for this variable?”.

By: Gustavo Duarte

Gustavo Duarte — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:13:30 +0000

Cool post :)

The end reminded me of a Bertrand Russel quote:

The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.