Reading Code Effectively: An Overlooked Developer Skill • Marit van Dijk & Hannes Lowette

GOTO - The Brightest Minds in Tech

This interview was recorded for GOTO Unscripted.
https://gotopia.tech

Read the full transcription of this interview here

Marit van Dijk - Developer Advocate at JetBrains, Java Champion & Open Source Contributor
Hannes Lowette - Principal Consultant at Axxes, Monolith Advocate, Speaker & Whiskey Lover
RESOURCES
Marit
https://bsky.app/profile/maritvandijk.bsky.social
https://linkedin.com/in/maritvandijk
https://github.com/mlvandijk
https://medium.com/@mlvandijk
https://maritvandijk.com

Hannes
https://bsky.app/profile/hanneslowette.net
https://twitter.com/hannes_lowette
https://github.com/Belenar
https://linkedin.com/in/hanneslowette

Links
https://www.felienne.com
https://codereading.club
https://github.com/neontribe/code-reading-club
DESCRIPTION
Reading code is a critical yet often underappreciated skill in software development. Marit van Dijk & Hannes Lowette highlight that while developers are trained to write code, they spend most of their time understanding existing codebases—often with incomplete documentation and evolving complexity.
They discuss research-backed strategies, such as structured code reading exercises, participation in communities like the Code Reading Club, and leveraging modern IDE tools to navigate and comprehend unfamiliar code. The conversation underscores the importance of empathy in code reviews, writing clear commit messages, and using tests as documentation to improve collaboration and maintainability. By practicing code reading deliberately and utilizing available resources, developers can become more effective and adaptable in their work.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Felienne Hermans • The Programmer's Brain
Adrienne Braganza Tacke • "Looks Good to Me": Constructive Code Reviews
Duncan McGregor & Nat Pryce • Java to Kotlin
Saleem Siddiqui • Learning Test-Driven Development
Roy Osherove • The Art of Unit Testing
Trisha Gee & Helen Scott • Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA
Jacqui Read • Communication Patt

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챕터

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Reading code (00:01:13)

3. Challenges of complex code (00:06:00)

4. Strategies for understanding new codebases (00:07:57)

5. Empathy & collaboration (00:10:23)

6. Write code that's easy to read & understand (00:18:06)

7. Tips for improving your code reading skills (00:29:49)

8. Outro (00:31:47)