Yeah, not easy, but it helps to build some rapport first, so people learn what you’re after. The way I tend to do that is by leaving a review comment with an example code snippet that makes me understand it better, and a question “what do you think about this version? I tried to clarify a few things here.”. + Explain what was clarified. I find the effort usually pays off.

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necovek 9 days ago | parent | next [-]

I found that to be a double edged sword: some copy and paste it verbatim without thinking it through and adjusting at all.

It's a delicate balance we need to keep in mind between many of:

- maintainable code

- getting things done

- feeling of accomplishment

- feedback loop speed

- coaching

- motivation and emotional state ("why are they pestering me, the code works, I just want to feel productive and useful: this was hard enough to get right as it is")

...and more!

At the same time, some do get the point, but getting readable code is really an art/craft in itself, and nothing but experience and learning to look at it from outside is the main driver to learning.

	▲	hakunin 9 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, this does require a certain team culture building effort. Just starting cold without any expectation-setting might not be received well. One "rule" I try to meta-promote is — working code is the first step, and a great foundation to then proceed to clear and maintainable code. Another, is that code reviews are first-class citizens deserving mindfulness.

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radiator 9 days ago | parent | prev [-]

But this might require too much effort from the reviewer