The Standup Worst Onboarding Experience Ever
8 snips
Dec 19, 2025 
In this discussion, Casey Muratori, a software developer known for his deep technical insights, shares amusing tales from his chaotic onboarding experience. The team dives into J Diesel's bizarre metadata design, revealing the complexities of SVN revisions. They recount a two-day Tortoise SVN checkout nightmare and Jake's struggle with unreadable files. The implications of tracking function revisions lead to a mix of humor and horror as Jake faces the consequences of his well-intentioned fixes. They also explore the dangers of idolizing brilliant engineers and the need for pragmatic coding.
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Custom Parsers Hide Dangerous Behaviors
- Casey explains some codebases reimplement runtimes instead of using standard parsers, which can introduce subtle, dangerous behavior like executing comments.
- Custom parsers or runtimes create maintainability and safety risks that aren't obvious until they cause production failures.
Judge Code By Results, Not Just Style
- ThePrimeagen and Casey note that unreadable but correct code from experts can be acceptable if it produces reliable results.
- Evaluate code by behavior and stability, not just style or superficial cleanliness.
Consider Context Before Criticizing Code
- Trash Dev warns that novice critics often ignore real-world constraints like deadlines and managers when judging code quality.
- Consider business context before demanding perfection; prioritize pragmatic trade-offs in production code.
