Comment by jerf

One of my favorite little things to notice is when everybody thinks they know what something is, and they all agree about it, but they in fact don't agree. In this case we have the statement "Code review is a good idea". What right-minded software engineer could possibly disagree with that?

But then notice 1. the number of people jumping up to say "No, you don't understand the point of code review" and 2. how what follows "The point is..." varies between so many different people. I can't quite say it's a unique take per person, as I've seen before, there are some common threads, but they are also not all the same answer by any means either.

In this case, there isn't a "the" point of code review to discuss. It turns out that while we all may have thought we were doing it for the same reasons, we aren't. This is real. We don't have the same goals, we don't have the same methodology, and thus, the value we get from it may be different. And in fact it is perfectly reasonable to discuss the multiple cost/benefits ratios that differ across the various definitions, because the simplification "it's good, end of story" is destroying important distinctions.

In this situation, it is helpful to frame this as a matter of the costs and benefits of the various options available. Forget the statement "code review is good"; it is fallacious to start with that statement as an axiom and then argue about whether or not your definition of "code review" is or is not the "correct" definition so that your definition gets the "good" attribute applied to it. Consider the options directly.

(I have to admit I've used this effect in anger... in meetings where I can tell that everybody thinks they know what some project is but I can tell they all have a different definition of it in mind, but I also know it's not going to happen anyhow, I don't chase down the differences. Sometimes you can use this to your advantage to cut short what would otherwise be a quite interminable, yet ultimately pointless, meeting.)