Andrew Chow (Bitcoin Core maintainer), in interview for CoinDesk.
“Reviewing code is mind-numbing”
While for sure contexts qualifies the statement, I find it surprising that most people tend to think reviewing code written by others to be boring compared to writing code themselves.
Maybe I’m old man, but after decades of coding, writing programs often has become to me just a chore between an idea and its implementation.
Reviewing other people’s code however is much more exciting. For the past four years, I have spent 50%+ of my work hours reviewing code and less than 10% writing it — and I think it’s much more fun.
While often transcribing an idea into code is quite trivial, and consists mostly of reading docs and the figuring out your own stupid mistakes, there are infinite ways in which other people make mistakes.
I think one of the main reasons people don’t spend as much time contributing code reviews is that it’s harder to use it to show off creds.
I can always point to my merged commits as clear evidence I contributed to Bitcoin Core, but anyone can leave random comments in PRs and it’s hard to tell if a comment was actually valuable.
lucash.dev
npub1st…w67hq
2023-03-12 20:13:43
Author Public Key
npub1sttsl959a2lvyufqrwkdrlqeg85ks65m72mgdsup5kmx9asqq2csaw67hqPublished at
2023-03-12 20:13:43Event JSON
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"content": "Andrew Chow (Bitcoin Core maintainer), in interview for CoinDesk.\n\n“Reviewing code is mind-numbing”\n\nWhile for sure contexts qualifies the statement, I find it surprising that most people tend to think reviewing code written by others to be boring compared to writing code themselves.\n\nMaybe I’m old man, but after decades of coding, writing programs often has become to me just a chore between an idea and its implementation.\n\nReviewing other people’s code however is much more exciting. For the past four years, I have spent 50%+ of my work hours reviewing code and less than 10% writing it — and I think it’s much more fun.\n\nWhile often transcribing an idea into code is quite trivial, and consists mostly of reading docs and the figuring out your own stupid mistakes, there are infinite ways in which other people make mistakes.\n\nI think one of the main reasons people don’t spend as much time contributing code reviews is that it’s harder to use it to show off creds.\n\nI can always point to my merged commits as clear evidence I contributed to Bitcoin Core, but anyone can leave random comments in PRs and it’s hard to tell if a comment was actually valuable.",
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