• Recently, I ran into this topic at work, and Alan Page wrote a comprehensive must-read article “Anti-Hero” about very similar behavior, so it resonated strongly with how I felt at that moment.

    • “Sometimes, people want to be the hero so badly that they purposely hoard information, sabotage the ability of others to learn their area, or otherwise gatekeep growth.” In my recent situation, it has even a little different color - the person stated that he does not want to be a part of that specific project if the team would not choose his suggestion (which is keeping his niche approach where he is a recognized go-to-person). Stepping out of your comfort zone to solve the problems that matter? No, have not heard about it.

    • “And while it’s ok to celebrate the hero (even when you shouldn’t), take time to celebrate when you don’t need the hero.” - this one is powerful. How do we celebrate a casual day in the office when no incidents happen? How do we celebrate a routinely good quality (that is taken for granted)?

  • So, when you have the knowledge, it is important to share it to reduce the bottleneck in you. But sometimes I struggle to explain why someone needs to learn and attend such knowledge-sharing sessions when the topic is not really relevant in their current work. And there I like to remember the advice I remember from a lecturer who gave us training about personality types, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to apply that in certain situations. The advice was that typically we use only several styles, but it is good to understand more of them - it is good to have options - and, it is good to have the freedom to choose the option suitable for the given context.

  • Concluding this knowledge-sharing topic, I feel relieved as I have finally finished my article about “Testing and gen-AI, LLMs – why will testing not go away?” It took some time and struggle to define some of my thinking into words (and that reminded me 10+ years old experience of me trying to write a book and all that suffering of idealism). Actually, on the day I am writing this point, my colleague at work shared his experience of coding together with GitHub Copilot, and his words reassured me - sometimes those gen-AI suggestions lead to “trust issues”, and it feels exactly like my point I am trying to make in that article. Give it a read and let me know what you think.

  • I feel like the IT market (including test engineer roles) is experiencing not the best days of all time, to say the least. Probably, all the “we can develop high-quality products without testers” statements are nothing new, but it is interesting to see another side of the story - some teams realizing that eliminating the tester role was not really a good idea:
  • Finally, this week I had a chance to visit Amsterdam for the first time. It was also the first time for me on a business trip alone. And there on those flights, I had some quality alone time, and I used some of it to reflect. Sometimes I reflect as a kid observing a grown-up myself from a distance (similar method to “fly on the wall”, yet a little different). This time I remembered how I used to look at all those fancy serious people traveling for their businesses (and minding their businesses), and I used to look at them with some admiration and respect, dreaming… And now I was that one serious uncle traveling alone on my own to meet some partners.
    And talking about Amsterdam - which is already well-known as one of the most liberal cities in the World - have you ever noticed it has XXX in its coat of arms?