The Unwritten Rules of Developer Culture

Every work culture has its rituals.
Developers, though? We have our own secret society, complete with strange customs, sacred jargon, and ancient traditions handed down from one senior engineer to the next.

No one writes these rules down.
You simply absorb them—like osmosis, but with more caffeine.

Let’s pull back the curtain.

1. Standups: Where We Recite the JIRA Chronicles
   
   The unwritten rule of every standup is simple:
   
   Just say the name of your JIRA ticket and hope nobody asks follow-up questions.
   
   A typical standup goes like this:
   
   Scrum Master: “Edwin, what are you working on?”
   Me: “on JIRA-1042.”
   Scrum Master: “And today?”
   Me: “Almost Done… JIRA-1042.”
   Team: nods respectfully
   
   Standups are not meetings. They are rituals of survival.
   Your goal is to provide exactly enough information to sound productive, while avoiding any deeper conversation that may require diagrams.
   
   If you’re done early?
   Congratulations—you’ve unlocked the bonus round known as “picking up another JIRA ticket.”
   
   This is how heroes fall.
   
2. Pull Request Reviews: The Judgement Panel
   
   Every team has reviewers.
   We have reviewers… with accents of authority.
   
   Our French colleagues perform PR reviews like Michelin inspectors rating a restaurant.
   1. If they comment: “Maybe consider refactoring this?”
      That means: This code is an existential crisis. Fix it.
   2. If they approve with no comments?
      That means:
      They were either extremely impressed or extremely tired. There is no middle.
      
      But honestly?
      Their feedback is gold—structured, thoughtful, and always sprinkled with elegance.
      
3. The True Unwritten Rule: We’re All Trying Our Best
   
   For all the dramatics, quirks, and chaos, developer culture has one binding principle:
   
   We laugh at broken builds.
   We support each other’s PR struggles.
   We pretend to understand ticket descriptions written by someone half-asleep.
   We celebrate small wins like big ones.
   
   And even if the rules aren't written anywhere…