On grace and code review

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Code review is one of the few places engineers regularly put their judgment on public display and invite it to be corrected. It is a small, repeated exercise in humility, if you let it be.

The best reviews I've received were never the ones that just pointed at a bug. They were the ones that assumed I had a reason for what I wrote, asked about it, and only then disagreed. That's grace applied to a diff.

Speak the truth, but speak it gently.

Practically, that means:

• Ask before you assert
• Separate "this is wrong" from "this isn't how I'd do it"
• Leave the nitpicks for last, and label them as nitpicks

None of this is complicated. It is just easy to forget under deadline pressure.