It is very easy to think of software development as being an entirely technical activity, where humans don’t really matter and everything is about the computer. However, the opposite is actually true.

Software engineering is fundamentally a human discipline.

Many of the mistakes made over the years in trying to fix software development have been made by focusing purely on the technical aspects of the system without thinking about the fact that it is human beings who write the code. When you see somebody who cares about optimization more than readability of code, when you see somebody who won’t write a comment but will spend all day tweaking their shell scripts to be fewer lines, when you have somebody who can’t communicate but worships small binaries, you’re seeing various symptoms of this problem.

In reality, software systems are written by people. They are read by people, modified by people, understood or not by people. They represent the mind of the developers that wrote them. They are the closest thing to a raw representation of thought that we have on Earth. They are not themselves human, alive, intelligent, emotional, evil, or good. It’s people that have those qualities. Software is used entirely and only to serve people. They are the product of people, and they are usually the product of a group of those people who had to work together, communicate, understand each other, and collaborate effectively. As such, there’s an important point to be made about working with a group of software engineers:

There is no value to being cruel to other people in the development community.

It doesn’t help to be rude to the people that you work with. It doesn’t help to angrily tell them that they are wrong and that they shouldn’t be doing what they are doing. It does help to make sure that the laws of software design are applied, and that people follow a good path in terms of making systems that can be easily read, understood, and maintained. It doesn’t require that you be cruel to do this, though. Sometimes you do have to tell people that they haven’t done the right thing. But you can just be matter of fact about it—you don’t have to get up in their face or attack them personally for it.

For example, let’s say somebody has written a bad piece of code. You have two ways you could comment on this:

“I can’t believe you think this is a good idea. Have you ever read a book on software design? Obviously you don’t do this.”

That’s the rude way—it’s an attack on the person themselves. Another way you could tell them what’s wrong is this:

“This line of code is hard to understand, and this looks like code duplication. Can you refactor this so that it’s clearer?”

In some ways, the key point here is that you’re commenting on the code, and not on the developer. But also, the key point is that you’re not being a jerk. I mean, come on. The first response is obviously rude. Does it make the person want to work with you, want to contribute more code, or want to get better? No. The second response, on the other hand, lets the person know that they’re taking a bad path and that you’re not going to let that bad code into the codebase.

The whole reason that you’re preventing that programmer from submitting bad code has to do with people in the first place. Either it’s about your users or it’s about the other developers who will have to read the system. Usually, it’s about both, since making a more maintainable system is done entirely so that you can keep on helping users effectively. But one way or another, your work as a software engineer has to do with people.

Yes, a lot of people are going to read the code and use the program, and the person whose code you’re reviewing is just one person. So it’s possible to think that you can sacrifice some kindness in the name of making this system good for everybody. Maybe you’re right. But why be rude or cruel when you don’t have to be? Why create that environment on your team that makes people scared of doing the wrong thing, instead of making them happy for doing the right thing?

This extends beyond just code reviews, too. Other software engineers have things to say. You should listen to them, whether you agree or not. Acknowledge their statements politely. Communicate your ideas to them in some constructive fashion.

And look, sometimes people get angry. Be understanding. Sometimes you’re going to get angry too, and you’d probably like your teammates to be understanding when you do.

This might all sound kind of airy-fairy, like some sort of unimportant psychobabble BS. But look. I’m not saying, “Everybody is always right! You should agree with everybody all the time! Don’t ever tell anybody that they are wrong! Nobody ever does anything bad!” No, people are frequently wrong and there are many bad things in the world and in software engineering that you have to say no to. The world is not a good place, always. It’s full of stupid people. Some of those stupid people are your co-workers. But even so, you’re not going to be doing anything effective by being rude to those stupid people. They don’t need your hatred—they need your compassion and your assistance. And most of your co-workers are probably not stupid people. They are probably intelligent, well-meaning individuals who sometimes make mistakes, just like you do. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Work with them, be kind, and make better software as a result.

-Max