> Working as a tester means living with permanent cognitive dissonance. Let me explain. When your main task is to find problems, that might not feel so nice. It can feel negative, like you are not truly working on the product because you are not building like a developer. #blog #testing

Inside you are two wolves

Let me jump on a trend for once, yeah? For some reason, I'm seeing the "two wolves" meme making a comeback over on Mastodon, which is admittedly pretty niche as far as social media platforms go. But i...

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> Quality isn't engineered, my god, there's barely any quality at all. It's not even a focus for most companies. They say that they care, but actions speak louder. They only care about money, and focus on extracting as much of it as they can in the short term. www.maaikebrinkhof.nl/quality-is-e...

Quality = Engineered + Experienced - explained with fountain pens.

I'm about to make a huge mistake by publishing this post, as today's topic is: quality. Is there a concept, a word, that's more divisive in the software testing community than quality? I have to admi...

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Why do so many testers think they aren’t enough? That they should be ashamed of their role? That they should be called something different in order to get the respect they desire and deserve? Well, I can venture a guess! www.maaikebrinkhof.nl/why-do-so-ma...

Why do so many testers have an identity crisis?

Why do so many testers think they aren’t enough? That they should be ashamed of their role? That they should be called something different in order to get the respect they desire and deserve? Well, I...

maaikebrinkhof.nl

In my last post about testing, I told you to stop thinking that testing can find all the issues. Today, I want to focus on what I do, instead of saying what you shouldn't do. Walk the talk, and such. What is my main job as a test consultant? #testing #tech www.maaikebrinkhof.nl/my-software-...

My software testing approach

In my last post about testing, I told you to stop thinking that testing can find all the issues. Today, I want to focus on what I do, instead of saying what you shouldn't do. Walk the talk, and such. ...

maaikebrinkhof.nl

> Be a better person, so you can be a better person to the people around you. Without reading self-help books, or doing conscious personal development work, I have managed to take big steps this year. I am accepting myself as I am, and trusting myself to be good enough as a human being.

Acceptance of the self

The theme that Hobonichi chose for next year is "you love you?". At first, it sounded cheesy to me, but follow the link and read what Shigesato Itoi has to say about it. A small excerpt: “I Love Me” ...

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New YouTube video! Explore Utrecht from the comfort of your couch. I'm walking next to the Catherijnesingel, a lovely bit of water where people come to chill, watch boats, walk their dogs... #urbanism #walking www.youtube.com/watch?v=FePt...

Taking a walk in Utrecht POV: Catherijnesingel

YouTube video by maaikees

youtube.com

Newsletter: My 16,000 word opus - How To Argue With An AI Booster, a comprehensive guide to arguing with AI boosters, addressing both their bad faith debate style and their specific (and flimsy) arguments as to why generative AI is the future. www.wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue...

How To Argue With An AI Booster

Editor's Note: For those of you reading via email, I recommend opening this in a browser so you can use the Table of Contents. This is my longest newsletter - a 16,000-word-long opus - and if you like...

wheresyoured.at

How to make "the most" of my life? (A question that makes me slightly ill just by writing it down.) I don't believe that life is there to be squeezed like a lemon, to get the maximum amount of juice out of it. On the other hand, just loafing about on a couch ain't it, either.

Being erratic

This has honestly been the question that I've been dealing with for almost my entire life: How to live when my "output" is so erratic? How to make "the most" of my life? (A question that makes me slig...

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Pen and paper are superior are your AI bullshit. www.maaikebrinkhof.nl/pen-and-pape...

Pen and paper are superior to your AI bullshit.

There are currently 5 notebooks on my desk. Actually, I'm lying! There are 7 notebooks on my desk if you count the 2 Rhodia scratch pads I use for throw-away notes. If there's one thing that "AI" and...

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I've written this straight from the heart: Humanity hates people. www.maaikebrinkhof.nl/humanity-hat...

Humanity hates people.

We could have made our environment welcoming to cyclists and pedestrians, but we didn't. A car centric environment is the norm in many parts of the world, making it dangerous to be outside if you cann...

maaikebrinkhof.nl

Many people choose to watch short videos on their smartphones for hours on end, willingly. What are the consequences of this behavior? Why do so many people choose to let their minds be colonized instead of doing something else with their limited time? www.maaikebrinkhof.nl/dont-let-the...

Don’t let them colonize your mind

In the disturbing film, A Clockwork Orange, the protagonist's eyes are being forcefully kept open, and he has no choice but to watch the most horrible scenes in order to “rehabilitate” from the awful ...

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RIP the Internet as we have known it. You were great while you lasted, until big tech came along and fucked everything up with SEO and ads. "AI" is just the thing that finally tips the balance over to "most of the internet is unusable", but all this bullshit was in the making for years.

Why I don't want to be in a WhatsApp group with boomers

Almost everyone I know is in at least a couple of group chats on messaging apps. Here in Europe, WhatsApp (by Meta) is still the most popular choice to run a group chat. My second orchestra also put e...

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On international women's day, we train for the apocalypse 💪 thanks for an awesome session @maaikees.bsky.social

Happy to announce that I've found a new IT assignment, thanks to the power of my network and serendipity. Thank you all for sharing my posts about looking for a new assignment and the "don't put me in a box"-blog <3 www.maaikebrinkhof.nl/thank-you/

Thank you

Many thanks to everyone who liked and shared the posts on my blog and LinkedIn where I was announcing that I was searching for a new IT assignment and where I was asking people to not put me in a box....

maaikebrinkhof.nl

Spilling the tea for MoT, soon.

@fionaccharles.bsky.social closing her fantastic keynote at #TestAutomationDays with a shoutout to @maaikees.bsky.social, showing a drawing of her.

A Guardian article inspired this blog post, in which I will once again lament this Catch 22 situation: you cannot truly prove testing has worked. The closest we can come to proving testing works is to be exceptionally clear about its process, its results, and also its limitations. #blog #testing

The real reason we need to invent a time machine

I was reading a very interesting article in The Guardian: 'All people could do was hope the nerds would fix it': the global panic over the millennium bug, 25 years on. At the turn of the millennium, I...

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Blogged: "Don't Put me in a Box". I share my personal frustrations about finding a job as a tester. I don't neatly fit in any of the testing roles but a bit in all of them. #blog #testing #tech #IT www.maaikebrinkhof.nl/dont-put-me-...

Don't put me in a box

I'm trying to find a new assignment as a self-employed Test Consultant, and this confronts me with some facets of job searching that I don't really enjoy. My main complaint is that most roles try to ...

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New article alert! My hatred for all things AI forced me to consider the lovely drug that is cognitive dissonance once again. In the article, I present a visual metaphor that explains cognitive dissonance clearly: the cognitive dissonance pyramid. #blog #tech

The cognitive dissonance pyramid: one hell of a drug.

We are all wrong from time to time, it's part of the human condition. Even smart people can be wrong. True wisdom is being able to admit you were wrong, and then actually change your mind. However, th...

maaikebrinkhof.nl

It's maddening to me how many people in the software testing community are blindly using AI tools in their work. Promoting these tools! Are you a parrot for big tech? Weren't we supposed to care about quality? How is a tool that is fully based on stolen work a quality solution!?

"You still look feminine", is not the compliment you think it is. A short rant about stuff people say to me now that I'm more muscular than average. #blog

"You still look feminine", is not the compliment you think it is

Let's talk about the female body. The female body is not allowed to just exist without garnering opinions from others. Surprisingly, not only from men. Women also love to comment on other women's bod...

maaikebrinkhof.nl

Uhm, I’m almost embarrassed to ask this, but how do you call a Tweet on this here platform?

Ticked off a lot of to-do's today. I really wish that would make me feel good, but as I explained many times by now, it does NOTHING in my brain. There is no reward, no relief. Damn it. One big task remains: TAXES. Of course, I left that one as the last task. *takes a deep breath* HERE WE GO

Was using Obsidian a ton last year, but then I made a switch to more analog note-taking. Not using a computer turns out to remove barriers to get started, even though Obsidian as a tool tries to not be in your way. Picking up a notebook and starting to write is even easier. YMMV

I thought the final boss of software testing was the organization structure, aka: management. We can go one level deeper, to the secret fifth level! Once you know, it cannot be unseen. #blog #IT #software #testing www.maaikebrinkhof.nl/the-secret-f...

The secret fifth level of testing

The following drawing was the inspiration for my Testing RPG talk. Excuse its quality, I have never left the "drawing people as figure sticks like a toddler"-stage. I have contemplated recording the ...

maaikebrinkhof.nl

You use white noise to calm yourself. I use atmospheric black metal to calm myself. We are not the same.

I found a silly little baby on my walk today. She meows back if you meow at her!!

Oliver and I took the day off to work on Healthy Living for Desk Dwellers. Either today or tomorrow, we'll email our Early Members with the next steps for the platform and community, which involves all around YOUR qualitative feedback. There's still time to join and get involved early! 👇

I need energy for writing. Super Smash Brothers Ultimate main menu theme music delivers. This song SLAPS: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yepz...

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Menu Music Extended

YouTube video by ItzRudes

youtube.com

Gemini AI crap was just turned on in my Google Workspace against my will. Sigh.....now I need to spend precious mental work capacity to figure out where I can host my email and docs SANS BULLSHIT. I hate this timeline. @testpappy.bsky.social at least it correctly identified you as Grumpy Pappy