I finally told a coworker to stop using comments for obvious code

Had a guy at my last job who wrote 10 lines of Python with 8 lines of comments explaining each simple variable. I asked him why and he said it was for 'future proofing.' I straight up told him that just makes it harder to read. He got quiet for a second then admitted he learned that from a bootcamp 3 years ago. Anyone else deal with someone over-commenting basic stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

parkerrodriguez7d ago

Tbh, that bootcamp style of over-commenting is so real and its painful to deal with. I had a similar thing where a new guy put three comments on a single line that just said "x = 5 # sets x to 5". It made me want to scream because the code just becomes this wall of noise instead of something you can actually read through quickly. Ngl, the whole "future proofing" excuse always rubs me the wrong way, it feels like a cover for not trusting yourself or the code to speak for itself. Good on you for calling it out directly, sometimes people just need that honest push to break the habit. Honestly glad you got through to him because bad commenting habits can spread like a virus on a team.

nancy_owens7d ago

Huh, I actually see it a little different. @parkerrodriguez, some people need to over-comment at first to make sure they understand their own code, and rushing them out of that can make things worse. Let the guy find his rhythm, he'll trim down the noise once he gets comfortable.