Dispelling The 'Genius Programmer' Myth Through Code Review
summary
Claims that deliberate practice and collaborative review beat innate genius, and shows concrete practices from major Python projects: configure editor to fix whitespace, automated linters and CI for trivial style fixes, follow visible contributing guidelines and required docstrings and unit tests. Examples include a massive Twisted logging refactor that stalls review and a workflow of iterating small patches, gathering feedback early, and saving large process-change debates for later. The goal is measurable: fewer nit comments, faster merges, and more sustained contributions.
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chapters (19)
- 0:00Intro
- 5:01Open Source Contributions!
- 6:42Fears of a new programmer
- 7:11Clever people don't make mistakes, right?
- 8:18Leaders exist. Heroes don't.
- 8:39Why won't you "just merge it"?
- 9:33"I hope that's not my project" -Every maintainer in the room
- 10:13Contributing Basics
- 11:44Split reviews into smaller diffs.
- 12:39Work with your reviewer.
- 13:10Criticism is not evil.
- 14:33Iterate failures quickly.
- 15:05Document every effort.
- 15:53Social problems cannot be solved with technical solutions.
- 16:20If you care deeply about a style, document it *visibly*.
- 18:02Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Never.
- 19:071. Mention the change. 2. Provide a self-contained example. 3. Describe the effects of the change.
- 21:37There's no such thing as "not qualified enough".
- 22:23It's alright to miss things.
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