Ask HN: What tone to use in code review suggestions?
My rules for reviews (which influence the language used) are:<p>* Criticise the code, not the author (&quot;There&#x27;s a bug here&quot; vs. &quot;You inserted a bug here&quot;);<p>* Reach common agreement that people shouldn&#x27;t cling to code written (&quot;sunk cost fallacy&quot;). Code is liability, and it&#x27;s okay to throw things away and restart from scratch, the value is in the learning;<p>* Don&#x27;t use questions that invite discussion if you&#x27;re not inviting a discussion, instead expose the reason you believe something should be different (&quot;Should this be like X?&quot; vs. &quot;I think this should be like X for reasons A, B, C.&quot;). This avoids wasting time and reviews that turn into long discussions.<p>* Don&#x27;t give orders (&quot;Do this&quot;, &quot;Do that&quot;) to your colleagues, since they are not your employees, and it doesn&#x27;t help promote learning &amp; growth by not exposing the reasoning behind the demand;<p>* Avoid bike-shedding about style&#x2F;formatting&#x2F;etc. If this is important where you work, automate with tools;<p>* Agree previously on what constitutes a non-passable review, if there&#x27;s such a process.