You’re reviewing a Pull Request. You see a variable that should be renamed. Or a comment that should be rephrased. Or some if/else logic that could be a guard clause. Should you comment on the PR, or let it go? My answer: in most cases, yes, you should leave a…

For the past few years, I’ve dedicated just 30 minutes a month to organizing my photos. It’s had an incredibly positive impact on my life’s enjoyment. In this post, I’ll share my system which motivates me to take more photos. Have you ever gone on a trip, been to an…

I post about code reviews often. For example: how to review pull requests, how to author pull requests, and how to force multiply your code review process. Often, I get feedback like this: “We should forget about pull requests, embrace pair programming, and adopt trunk-based development!” In this post, I’ll…

Several months ago I launched my first info product, a video course called Master the Code Review. I built it from scratch, on my own, and from my own ideas. So far it’s done over $23K in revenue, with $13K in the first month. I’m not writing this to flex…

Last month I launched my first ever video course. It’s done $17K in revenue, and it’s helped over 500 developers Master the Code Review. But I didn’t build it for them — I built it for the me of the past. …

I was a software development engineer at Amazon Web Services for 6 years. I started as an intern. I grew to be a tech lead for various teams and projects. During my time at AWS, I directly mentored over a dozen junior software engineers. …

Software engineers engage in code reviews daily. Some teams have a great code review process. Others could use improvement. Here are 3 signs of a bad code review process, and how your team can ship better software, faster. 3 signs of a bad code review process 🚩 If code reviews make you, or other developers, anxious. Likely, reviewers aren’t prioritizing kindness. …

As a developer, technical skills are important. But soft skills are key to level up — and they’re often overlooked. In 6 years, I went from intern to lead software engineer. I excelled in an organization known for hiring stellar tech talent. During this time I read more than 150…

At the start of my career I’d open a code review (a.k.a., Pull Request) and receive 50+ comments. I’d open a second revision, only to receive another 30. It often took 8, 9, even 10 reviews to get my code approved. My code had some serious flaws and readability gaps…