Code and design reviews are events where your standards and guidelines actually get enforced. Apply your standards clearly during review, then hold the line. An author should have to justify why you should bend the rules for their submission.

Conceding too early to an exemption (out of simple expediency, or worse, pity for the author) erodes your product’s quality. Every premature concession is an admission that you don’t really believe that your standards are necessary to build your product.

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View this photo in my flickr photostream

The Midway neon sign at Dave and Busters in Milpitas, CA.

📷 Nikon D800, Nikon 24–70mm f/2.8. 24mm, f/2.8, 1/80s, ISO 1250

• #photo

As the engineering profession becomes more inclusive, we need replacements for terms that may conjure up prejudice or bias. Here are some suggestions for improvements:

What other terms can you think of?

• #technology
• #opinion
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You may be tempted to hire a smart asshole into your team. Think long and hard before you do this. Don’t underestimate an asshole’s natural ability to ruin your team’s morale; to intimidate junior engineers; to become territorial about code and ideas; and to turn a productive hallway into a toxic environment.

Is an asshole’s genius really worth more than the loss of a good team dynamic? In twenty years I have never seen a single instance where a team wouldn’t be better off without them. Your odds are probably about the same.

Great reference: The No Asshole Rule

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When recommending an architectural or strategic direction, be sure to prominently call out the major risks involved in your proposal.

You might be tempted to paper over the risks involved in your proposal, probably because you think others will be more attracted to your plan that way. If you do this, you will appear dishonest, because you are.

An honest engineer is ready to acknowledge that all proposals carry risk. Calling them out up front shows that you have nothing to hide. This—maybe somewhat paradoxically—will lead other engineers to trust you more, not less.

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