Saša Jurić’s “Tell Me a Story” from Alchemy Conf 2025 addresses why code reviews are frustrating for both authors and reviewers.
Most developers focus on writing good PR titles and descriptions, but Jurić argues we’re ignoring the organization of the actual code changes. The result is pull requests that are difficult to understand and review effectively.
Using a live coding example where he builds Erlang scheduler monitoring, Jurić demonstrates how to structure commits and changes to make code review faster and more focused. He provides specific guidelines for PR size, commit organization, and reviewer empathy.
The talk covers practical techniques for breaking down complex changes into reviewable pieces and treating commits as communication tools rather than just version control snapshots.