| ▲ | MrJohz a day ago |
| In fact, the best critics of something are often its biggest fans. Roger Ebert, for example, wrote some pretty critical pieces, but nobody can deny that he was driven primarily by a love of cinema. Or take politics: I've seen people complain that left-wing commentators were too critical of Biden when they should have been criticising Trump, but often it's easier — and more useful — to criticise the things you like in the hope that they will improve, rather than spending all your time criticising something you don't like that will never listen to you. That said, it's still important to take the time to sing the praises of something you like. If Ebert had spent all his time talking down bad films, reading his columns would have been painful drudgery (see also: CinemaSins, Nostalgia Critic, and similar attempts at film-criticism-by-cynicism). A good critic wants their target to succeed, and celebrates when that happens. |
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| ▲ | memhole a day ago | parent | next [-] |
| Very accurate description. I think this gets missed sometimes. Sometimes you’re criticizing because you know a subject well and want to see it improved. |
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| ▲ | atq2119 a day ago | parent [-] | | See also: code review | | |
| ▲ | tpmoney a day ago | parent [-] | | Two things I try to do in every code review: If I’m doing the review, I try to find at least one or two items to call out as great ideas/moves. Even if it’s as simple as refactoring a minor pain point. If I’m being reviewed I always make sure to thank/compliment comments that either suggest something I genuinely didn’t consider or catch a dumb move that isn’t wrong but would be a minor pain point in the future. As you note, code reviews can be largely “negative feedback” systems, and I find encouraging even a small amount of positivity in the process keeps it from becoming soul sucking | | |
| ▲ | hackpelican 15 hours ago | parent [-] | | In some companies, (ahem… Amazon), engineers are judged by their code review/comment ratio. Especially L4 engineers trying to make it to L5. So actually putting positive comments in the code review isn’t really much appreciated. I gained this habit and now for me, a comment is a suggestion of improvement, I deliver praise out-of-band. | | |
| ▲ | wavemode 13 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > engineers are judged by their code review/comment ratio It's a horrible practice with adverse incentives, and one of the reasons I'm glad I no longer work there (and easily gameable, anyways - people would just DM each other patches they were unsure of, before submitting an actual CR) | |
| ▲ | tpmoney 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | The more I learn about how the bigger companies do business, the happier I am my dreams of working for them never materialized. I encounter enough stupid things caused by businesses trying to measure difficult things. I would hate to work in a place where the proper mode of conduct – praise in public, criticize in private – is flipped on its head for the purposes of someone's spreadsheet. |
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| ▲ | RyanOD a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| It is a real skill to critique a thing and not come off as complaining about it. |
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| ▲ | sethammons 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | Instead of statements, I favor questions. Instead of "I, me, you, etc,", I favor communal "we, the code, the team." Be specific when possible. I try to focus on what should be done vs what shouldn't be done. "Why did you not handle $situation" -> "how does this code handle $situation?" "You shouldn't do $thing" -> "$thing has sharp edges, see $link-to-more-info. The general approach used in the code base is to $alternative." |
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| ▲ | atoav 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Good observation: The biggest critics are indeed often the biggest fans — but funnily enough often just in a consumerist way. If you listen to interviees with great writers, musicians, painters or actors you will often find it surprising when they tell you which other arrists they like. That is because the people making the stuff often have a much more open mind about what constitutes interesting and/or good writing, music, paintings or acting. To me as an practitioner it feels at time that these "enthusiastic consumer critics" are incredibly bitter about not being able to live from the art they love like the ones they critique, so they carve out their niche and give themselves self-worth by playing a strong role in the field they love. With good critics this love is the predominant message, with bad critics it is the bitterness. |
