Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: How To React To Coworker Who Says My Code Is Bad?
A week ago, you read the other side of the same question. Now, an anonymous reader writes "I have been with my company for 10+ years and have seen many development cycles on our projects. We have a developer intern who has not been on the team for very long. On day one he started ripping into my code on how terrible it is. We have a code base of roughly 50,000 lines of code. When he comes to me with a complaint about the code it is simply because he does not have the experience with it to actually understand what the code is doing. He is a smart guy with lots of promise, he is asking good questions, but how do I get him to look past his own self perceived greatness enough to slow down and learn what we are doing and how we have pulled it off?"
After all, he's fresh from a CS program where they taught him everything.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Firing him might be the best lesson he ever learns...
Ask Slashdot: How Can I Explain To a Coworker That He Writes Bad Code?
Maybe, but we know that he posts to Slashdot as well.
outside, at the gate.
Mod points are rare these days.
*ducks*
Whether he is right or not is immaterial. Now is the time to assert your dominance. Sucker punch him and urinate on him while he's down to put him back in check.
yep.
What next? "I am some code. How do I tell my new maintainers they suck?"
Signature v3.0, now with 42% less memory usage.
I'm sure if he re-reads your internal design specifications, coding standards, and comments in the code he will understand your design.
What's the giant whooshing sound? It's as if thousands of blissfully ignorant "senior" coders suddenly missed your sarcasm, all at once. Well done, sir.
This questioner says he's been at the company 10 years and the new kid is hassling him. That prior question says the guy he's hassling has been at the company longer than the hassler has been alive. If they've hired a 9 year old as a coder then they deserve all the atttitude they get.
"You dare insult my code!? I'll kill you where you stand!"
This works and it's a good fundamental method, but it's not extremely efficient.
I typically like to hire them in a groups. Initially, lay quiet and see who is the more uppity of the bunch. Let him have his moment in front of the new kids and really start to build an alpha status for himself.
Shortly there after you really want to just casually stroll up to the fresh example and just stab him in the kidneys a few times. This will deal with the problem candidate and build your reputation as someone who gets things done. In fact, it is unlikely anyone will question your authority for some time.
We are primates, the proper response is to throw poop at him.
That's easy.
Perform a Core Dump.
Years ago I worked with a senior guy who was very good but very critical of everyone else's code, often for poor reasons. One day I showed him some code and asked his opinion. He starts ripping on it and asks me why I did it that way. I reply "You tell me, this is your stuff from a couple years ago.".
"How can I stop my employees from fighting over who's the best coder?
I don't care about code one way or another. I own a bakery, all I care about is selling bread. I just hired this CS college dropout because he was my cousin's nephew and I owed him a favor, and the kid turned out to be a good employee. Even suggested we bought a computer for keeping our budget electronically, and that worked out well. So, as I was satisfied with this somewhat bright kid, when I had to replace our janitor, I hired a second CS dropout. The problem is they started disagreeing right away about the most irrelevant things you can imagine and now they bicker all the time, have heated, uncivlized arguments about who is the better coder, what sort of software license works best, their choice of cellphone and whatnot. It's really disturbing the workflow around here. Nothing works properly anymore. For example, I never know whether my computer will have LibreOffice or MS Office installed, which means that at any given day I can open only about half my files properly. My customers are also placing complaints and I'm fed up with the food fights they cause. Can someone tell me how to make them stop or, at least, how to properly discern compatible nerds in the future?"
just show him this http://xkcd.com/844/