Small Pull Requests, Big Impact: The Art of Code Reviews • Adrienne Braganza Tacke & Sasa Juric

GOTO - The Brightest Minds in Tech

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

Read the full transcription of this interview here

Adrienne Braganza Tacke - Senior Developer Advocate at Viam Robotics & Author of "Looks Good To Me: Constructive Code Reviews"
Saša Jurić - Author of "Elixir in Action" & The Ultimate Beacon in the Elixir Space
RESOURCES
Adrienne
https://bsky.app/profile/abt.bsky.social
https://x.com/AdrienneTacke
https://github.com/AdrienneTacke
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriennetacke
https://www.instagram.com/adriennetacke
https://www.adrienne.io
https://blog.adrienne.io

Saša
https://bsky.app/profile/sasajuric.bsky.social
https://twitter.com/sasajuric
https://github.com/sasa1977
https://linkedin.com/in/sa%C5%A1a-juri%C4%87-21b23186
https://www.theerlangelist.com
DESCRIPTION
Adrienne Braganza, author of "Looks Good to Me: Constructive Code Reviews", and Saša Jurić, author of “Elixir in Action”, explore best practices for effective code reviews. They discuss how smaller, well-organized pull requests lead to better feedback, the importance of comment classification, and when to take discussions offline. Both emphasize that code reviews aren't just about catching bugs—they're crucial for knowledge transfer and creating cohesive codebases.
While AI tools can help with routine aspects, human judgment remains essential, especially as AI-generated code becomes more common. The speakers agree that when done well, code reviews become one of the most valuable practices in software development.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Adrienne Braganza Tacke • "Looks Good to Me": Constructive Code Reviews
Adrienne Braganza Tacke • Coding for Kids
Saša Jurić • Elixir in Action
Grace Huang • Code Reviews in Tech
Martin Fowler • Refactoring

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챕터

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. What is code review & why does it matter? (00:01:25)

3. The art of code reviews: Why small, structured PRs matter (00:14:32)

4. Effective code reviews: The reviewer’s role & responsibility (00:22:54)

5. Code review clarity: Tagging comments for better collaboration (00:26:52)

6. Handling disagreements (00:31:01)

7. Pair programming vs code reviews (00:34:38)

8. AI & code reviews (00:37:14)

9. Outro (00:40:00)