2026-02-18//RANT
Your Code Review Is Just a Power Trip
"I don't like this variable name." That is not a code review comment. That is a personality disorder wearing a GitHub avatar.
REAL code review checks three things. Architecture: does this change fit the system design or is it fighting it? Logic: does the code actually do what it claims to do, and does it handle edge cases? Security: are we introducing vulnerabilities, leaking data, or trusting user input?
EVERYTHING else is style preference and should be handled by a linter. If your team has not configured a linter and formatter to auto-enforce style, that is a tooling problem, not a PR comment. Stop holding people's code hostage because you prefer camelCase and they used snake_case. Configure Prettier and move on with your life.
The worst offenders are the "nit" people. They leave 47 comments, all prefixed with "nit:" as if that prefix absolves them. "Nit: extra blank line." "Nit: I would put this import above the other one." "Nit: can we rename this from 'data' to 'userData'?" No. No we cannot. Because I have been waiting THREE DAYS for your review and you spent that time cataloguing whitespace.
You want to know what a GOOD code review looks like? "This retry logic doesn't have exponential backoff, so if the service is down we'll hammer it. Here's a suggestion." THAT is a review. That catches a real problem and offers a solution. "I don't like that you used reduce instead of a for loop" is not a review. It is a preference masquerading as expertise.
Ship the code. Fix real problems. Stop cosplaying as an architect because you have merge permissions.