On creativity, coding and reviews

Code reviews are important, however, the beauty of the code produced is skewed - it's more beautiful to the author of the pull request than the reviewer, leaving the creator in a potentially vulnerable state.

As an author, to help you reduce any anxiety you might feel about the process, here are some thought experiments you can try:

1) Perform the code review as a hand over, with the intention of the reviewer to make the code theirs. You've produced something that you want to give to the larger team.

2) You've produced something for some reason. You are now to present that reason and your solution so that - in the end two people have intricate knowledge of the code, instead of just yourself.

As a reviewer, remember to be courteous and thanking your team member for their effort, before you ask for improvements. I've also found it useful to ask questions with regards to desired changes - "is it possible to ... "; "how come you've done ... considering ... ?" It's a great way of getting to know your team member better and have them highlight things you might not have considered when just watching the end result! 

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