Career Fear

Question 1

contentious

Answer 1

Causing disagreement between people or groups (спорный):

• The contentious art of pull requests.
• Perhaps the most contentious conceptual issue was sovereignty.
• Sex education in schools remains a highly contentious issue.

Question 2

printout

Answer 2

Paper printed with information from a computer file (распечатка):

• I’m old enough to remember code reviews that were done with printouts, or with projectors, or (good gawd) on whiteboards.
• We might have a little map printout in the back.
• There’s a printout of names and vehicles waiting at the front desk.

Question 3

exaggerate

Answer 3

To describe something in a way that makes it seem better, worse, larger, more important etc than it really is (преувеличивать, утрировать):

• It’s no exaggeration to say that git represents a quantum leap in this area.
• Don’t exaggerate! It wasn’t that bad!
• Greatly/grossly/wildly exaggerate something: The paper’s political influence has been greatly exaggerated.
• Exaggerate the importance/significance of something: We should not exaggerate the importance of this agreement.

Question 4

peruse

Answer 4

To read through with thoroughness or care (in detail):

• Ideally, some (or all) of your team members are perusing most (or all) of the code before it ever gets merged into a parent branch.
• Make sure you peruse the document before signing.

Question 5

snark

Answer 5

Unkind remarks or criticism (язвить):

• A Forum For Snark And Pedantry.
• Her reviews are always full of snark.

Question 6

pedantry

Answer 6

The behaviour of someone who gives too much importance to details and formal rules, especially of grammar (педантичность):

• A Forum For Snark And Pedantry.
• They were well-informed and sometimes even learned, but there was never the slightest trace of pedantry in them.

Question 7

entrench

Answer 7

To place someone or something in a very strong position that cannot easily be changed or removed (закрепиться, окопаться):

• But developers already know these debates well. And they’re firmly entrenched in one side or the other.
• I entrenched myself within the organization.

Question 8

gird

Answer 8

To prepare for a difficult activity (опоясывать, подпоясываться, готовиться):

• When you invite another developer to look at your code, you can almost hear them cracking their knuckles, taking a deep breath, and girding themselves for a Snark Battle.
• The army is girding itself for a renewed assault by the rebels.

Question 9

nitpick

Answer 9

To criticize small unimportant details of something in a way that annoys other people (придираться):

• Rule #1: ALL nitpicky details about code styling should be defined/enforced in the linter.
• I don’t want to nitpick, but that was step one.

Question 10

hodgepodge

Answer 10

Солянка. A collection of things that do not belong together or have been put together carelessly:

• I recently worked on a team that thought they were wayyyyy too busy to implement any linting tools. But they still had their own internal hodgepodge of “coding standards” that they felt compelled to enforce.

Question 11

compel

Answer 11

To force someone to do something, or to get something from someone using force (вынужден, обязан):

• Compel someone to do something: The order compelled him to appear as a witness.
• Feel compelled to do something: I feel compelled to write to thank you.
• I recently worked on a team that thought they were wayyyyy too busy to implement any linting tools. But they still had their own internal hodgepodge of “coding standards” that they felt compelled to enforce.

Question 12

slew

Answer 12

Simple past tense of slay:

• To kill someone in a violent way: He was slain in battle in 673.
• To impress someone, especially by making them laugh: His jokes really slay me.

A large number or quantity (множество, масса):

• I’d code something up, submit my pull request, and then they’d hammer it with a slew of stylistic changes that they wanted me to make before it could be merged.

Question 13

adversarial

Answer 13

Involving people arguing with or opposing each other (сопернический, враждебный):

• If it passed the linter (or if you couldn’t be bothered to even implement a linter), then it’s an extremely poor (and adversarial) practice to use the pull request process as a haphazard means to enforce your poorly-defined “standards”.
• Industry and government had an adversarial relationship.

Question 14

haphazard

Answer 14

Done in a way that does not seem to be carefully planned or organized (бессистемный, беспорядочный, непродуманный):

• If it passed the linter (or if you couldn’t be bothered to even implement a linter), then it’s an extremely poor (and adversarial) practice to use the pull request process as a haphazard means to enforce your poorly-defined “standards”.

Question 15

inviolate

Answer 15

Something that is inviolate cannot be attacked or harmed (нерушимый, неприкосновенный):

• Too many times, I’ve seen PR comments where the reviewer confidently proclaims that something is “wrong” or must be changed. Even in the egotistic world of application development, such inviolate proclamations are often flawed.
• It proceeds from the premise that our sovereignty is inviolate and our nation indivisible.

Question 16

proclamation

Answer 16

An official announcement, especially about something important, or something that affects everyone (объявление, провозглашение, обнародование):

• Too many times, I’ve seen PR comments where the reviewer confidently proclaims that something is “wrong” or must be changed. Even in the egotistic world of application development, such inviolate proclamations are often flawed.
• The proclamation of an international day of the girl child was important for countries where girls were discriminated against from birth.

Question 17

couch

Answer 17

Диван, кушетка, тахта, ложе:

• But you sleep on couch tonight.

Express (something) in language of a specified style (выражать, формулировать):

• Couching your feedback in a little humility will usually get a far better response on the PR.

Question 18

cogent

Answer 18

A cogent argument is reasonable and sensible (обоснованный, достоверный):

• Or, at the very least, there’s always a possibility that the original coder had a cogent reason for writing the code the way that they did.
• The report contains a cogent analysis and recommendations that deserve further consideration.

Question 19

bemoan

Answer 19

To complain or say that you are disappointed about something (сетовать, сокрушаться):

• Recently, I worked on a team where the tech lead bemoaned the fact that their PR process was “broken” and that most of the devs didn’t really participate.

Оплакивать, скорбеть:

• It was not enough for Algeria to bemoan passively the fate of the people of Tindouf.

Question 20

avalanche

Answer 20

Лавина:

• But the submitter also bears responsibility in an effective review process. One of the greatest sins committed by the coder is that of the Code Avalanche.
• Moving at 250 miles an hour, an avalanche destroys everything in its path.

Question 21

encompass

Answer 21

To include a lot of people or things, to include or surround an large area:

• It encompasses many thousands of lines of code. And for various reasons, we’ve been hoarding it in our own private branch that’s never been pushed to anyplace where the other devs can see it.
• The student debates will encompass a range of subjects.
• His kingdom encompassed 890 square miles.

Question 22

hoard

Answer 22

A large amount of something that someone has saved or hidden somewhere (припрятывать):

• It encompasses many thousands of lines of code. And for various reasons, we’ve been hoarding it in our own private branch that’s never been pushed to anyplace where the other devs can see it.

Question 23

rubber stamp

Answer 23

A small object with a piece of rubber on one end that is used for printing something on a piece of paper (штамп, печать):

• I should get out a rubber stamp that says, “Josiah Bartlet votes no.”

​Official approval of something:

• And then we wait anxiously for their rubber-stamp approval.
• Are you looking for my professional opinion or a rubber stamp?

Question 24

frank

Answer 24

Honest about the situation or your opinions, even if this offends people (откровенный, искренный, чистосердечный):

• And let’s be frank. When we commit this sin (and this code), we all know, deep down, exactly what we’re doing.
• frank with: The company has not been entirely frank with its workers.
• frank about: He was completely frank about the problems we face.

Question 25

grok

Answer 25

To understand well (понимать):

• I was designing more and more Android interfaces at Twitter and realized I needed to more intimately grok Android UI paradigms.
• Simply reading code is hard. It’s a big ask to expect anyone to really grok the logic when it’s not running in their local environment, but instead it’s simply “printed” on the screen.

Question 26

endorsement

Answer 26

An occasion when someone gives official or public support to a particular person or thing:

• Well, when you slap an approval on someone else’s pull request, you absolutely should consider it to be your own personal endorsement of the code. When people know that their approvals could, in theory, be scrutinized after-the-fact, those people will magically stop “rubber stamping” pull requests. Those people start paying careful attention to any commit upon which they’ve placed their endorsement.

Question 27

proverbial

Answer 27

Well known, or typical (пресловутый, общеизвестный):

• In the rare cases where something truly “bad” makes its way to production, I’ve (unfortunately) seen the originating developer thrown right under the proverbial bus.

Used when you are describing something with an expression from a proverb:

• He turned up just like the proverbial bad penny.

Question 28

culpable

Answer 28

Responsible for doing something bad or illegal (виновный, преступный):

• But I am saying that any approver should bear at least some culpability for any egregious errors that go unchecked.
• Even if Tabitha is culpable, she most likely has a partner.

Question 29

egregious

Answer 29

Вопиющий:

• But I am saying that any approver should bear at least some culpability for any egregious errors that go unchecked.
• That is an egregious lie.

Question 30

horrendous

Answer 30

Extremely bad or shocking (чудовищный, ужасный, страшный, ужасающий):

• If Joe managed to get some horrendous code into production, and it eventually brought down the entire site/app, who is ultimately responsible for that failure? Well, Joe, of course.
• I’ve literally had situations where someone came over and directly asked me to approve a PR, I looked at the code and thought it was horrendous, and I told them, point-blank, that I wouldn’t approve the request, but I wasn’t going to decline it either.
• This is where you make me a pot of your horrendous coffee.

So much or so large that it shocks or upsets you:

• They work horrendous hours.
• Horrendous financial losses.

Question 31

dire

Answer 31

Very severe or serious (ужасный, жуткий):

• But it’s a dire mistake if Bob is not at least questioned about his approval on that crappy code.
• in dire need: Refugees are arriving in dire need of food and medical attention.
• in dire straits (in a very bad situation): The farming industry in this country is in extremely dire straits.

Saying that something very bad is going to happen:

• a dire warning/threat/prediction: The newspapers have all issued dire warnings about the consequences of failure for the government.

Question 32

brunt

Answer 32

Бремя, основная тяжесть:

• On one hand, none of us wants to bear the brunt of the crappy code that Joe managed to get into production.
• I am the one taking the brunt for your harebrained scheme.

Question 33

blatant

Answer 33

Done in an obvious way that shows you are not embarrassed or ashamed to be doing something bad or illegal:

• But if something was submitted (and, god forbid, deployed to production) that qualifies as a blatant error, the approver(s) on that PR should at least be called into question.
• It was a blatant attempt to influence the judges.

Question 34

incline

Answer 34

To tend to behave in a particular way or to have a particular attitude or opinion:

• As long as your team isn’t inclined to Bulldoze Comments, the commenting process itself is often a solid alternative to outright-declining someone’s PR.
• incline to: We incline to the view that things are either totally good or totally bad.
• incline to do something: He does incline to be rather nervous.

To slope in a particular direction, or to make something do this (наклон, наклоняться):

• The land inclines gradually downwards toward the Simpson Desert.
• He listens, and sometimes he inclines his head sympathetically.

Question 35

allegedly

Answer 35

If someone allegedly does something, another person says that they have done it, even though this has not been proved (якобы, мол):

• But as to the stuff that I’ve outlined in this article, I feel very strongly about it. It would take a lot to convince me that any of these rules are, in fact, flawed. But… I’ve been wrong before (allegedly). What say you???
• The second incident allegedly occurred in the spring of 1992.

Question 36

outright

Answer 36

Without hiding your feelings (прямо, откровенно):

• Deleting a pull request can be a much better option than declining one. For example, imagine that you’ve seen an outright compiling error in a pull request.
• As long as your team isn’t inclined to Bulldoze Comments, the commenting process itself is often a solid alternative to outright-declining someone’s PR.

Used for emphasizing that something happens or is done completely at one time or in a single process:

• They can afford to buy the house outright (=pay the total cost in one payment).