Thursday, September 30, 2021

Coding and frameworks do not make you a good programmer

We all learn things in our lives through some lessons and not surprisingly sometimes the lessons are a bit harsh.

I am just sharing the lesson I learned today i.e.

You need to give your feedback in a constructive manner, The one in front of you is also a human.

So, why the hell even I am talking about it?

You need to understand that if you are giving feedback or talking on a topic, the words that you use might make the second person feel offended, confronted, attacked, etc. Even though that is not your intention at all. You see if people are having a design, opinion, thought, even a T-shirt. If you don't like something about it try avoiding words like hate, don't like, bad, etc.

Try to be polite and welcoming. If you are able to get the person comfortable he/she might take your advice/feedback in a positive way. On the other hand, if you're not being constructive the other person might feel invaded in some sense.

Just take this small example, Suppose your friend is working on a website and without any context, you tell him "I hate the background color of your site". What do you expect????

"I hate your work" is harsh and confrontational for no reason. You can give feedback in a nicer way that doesn't make the recipient feel attacked. Such as "Did you try X as a background color? I think that might work better to increase contrast on the page", or something like that. Or even trying to understand why they made that decision in the first place, they may have had a good reason for choosing that way that you are not considering.

Be constructive with feedback. If you use emotional terms, you sound confrontational and just a bit like a dick. Hopefully, it is a lesson learned anyway. We all pour hours/weeks/months/years into our craft, so it's very hard not to get offended or attack back when it's so out of context, I would say out of character, to be honest too.

Hopefully, you got the point that I am trying to convey before you become a great programmer try to be a good person in the first place. You might bring a smile to a face.

Peace out ✌