
Ask HN: How to deal with hostile code review? - codingstuffs
The small startup I work for is starting to do a refactoring&#x2F;version 2 of its product, as such the owner is going through the code base and marking areas for improvement.<p>He has marked a few parts of the code that I worked on, and one in particular has the comment &quot;&#x2F;&#x2F;codingstuffs: This code makes me want to cry. Try xxx coding style??&quot;<p>Now, I will be the first to admit that likely my code sometimes can be a little messier, but the coding style he prefers the pyramid of doom (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Pyramid_of_doom_(programming)) and I had been taught this was not a good thing.<p>I&#x27;m happy to code to his particular style, but I can&#x27;t help but feel hurt by the comments. Does anyone have suggestions as to how to separate themselves more from their code&#x2F;work so that I can not take this as personally?
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wizzwizz4
Ask the owner to be a bit nicer. You can say something like:

> While we all make snide comments about our own code, it _really hurts_ when
> it comes from somebody else; this is distracting me from the actual
> suggestions you're giving. Could you try to be nicer with the comments you
> leave during code review?

This isn't a problem with you.

~~~
codingstuffs
Thank you - I appreciate the response, I was struggling to come up with what
to say, but I think you hit all the points there, especially with the fact
that it distracts me from the actual suggestions on the work.

