Patrick “Grumpy” Prill
@testpappy.bsky.social
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📥 138
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Tester, Woodworker
AI turns the faucet wide open. More code, more output, better looking dashboards. But nobody's watching the bathtub. A systems thinking look at why more output isn't more value.
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More Output Is Not More Value, or Why AI Might Break Your System
Every few years, a new tool arrives with bold promises. Better, faster, cheaper. We've seen it with test automation frameworks, with DevOps platforms, with low-code solutions. The marketing fliers are always shiny. The demos always impressive. And the promises always the same: more output, less effort. But this time it's different. Not because AI is fundamentally better than previous hype cycles (the jury is still out on that), but because it's so generic.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2026/03/11/more-output-is-not-more-value-or-why-ai-might-break-your-system/
about 24 hours ago
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You prompted it. You shipped it. You own it. The lack of ownership is the real problem with AI vibe-coding. And it's also why quality suffers. Generating stuff by the dozens means nothing if you're absent from your own output.
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You Ship It, You Own It.
My colleague James and I had a conversation the other day about this whole AI vibe-coding thing and how it affects us. And I realized that all the topics I wrote about over the last few days all lead to the same thing. The lack of ownership. A few weeks ago I wrote about what happens when you outsource testing to the AI…
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2026/03/10/you-ship-it-you-own-it/
2 days ago
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AI gives your engineers x-time output. So you fire people. Push faster. Ship bugs with confidence. And watch your ops team burn at 2am. The defects didn't disappear. They just arrived later, at a higher cost. To the whole team and company. Slow down, zoom out and scale the whole system.
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AI Increases Output by 10x. Especially Stress.
Open LinkedIn or YouTube on any given day and you'll find someone confidently explaining that engineers now produce 10x the code thanks to AI. Ten times! Let it be five times. Doesn't matter. And companies are drawing the logical conclusion. If one engineer does more work by herding AI agents, you need fewer engineers. The code practically writes itself. Every bottleneck on the way gets mitigated by removing roles and people.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2026/03/09/ai-increases-output-by-10x-especially-stress/
3 days ago
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The best devs I know are lazy in the smart way. But AI is making us lazy in the dumb way. Like cleaning products that promise no scrubbing needed, we're skipping the elbow grease. Problem is, friction is how we learn. Time to learn how to distinguish necessary friction from unnecessary.
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Friction-Maxxing, or The Case for Elbow Grease
My friend Maaike Brinkhof recently wrote a post called "They will not break me." Her point, in a nutshell: the more they push her to offload her work to an LLM, the more she grabs pen and paper, takes her time to think, and does her work slowly and thoroughly. And it finally kicked me into writing this piece that's been bouncing around in my head for a while.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2026/03/08/friction-maxxing-or-the-case-for-elbow-grease/
4 days ago
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LLMs don't learn, they're not deterministic, and reviewing their output is a full-time job. Running multiple agents in parallel without proper supervision? That's not velocity. That's negligence with extra steps.
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Vibe Coding is Like Groundhog Day
Vibe coding reminds me of micro-managing a talented junior developer. Except it's worse. Because the junior eventually learns. The junior starts anticipating your expectations, picks up patterns, develops judgment. The AI? You explain the same basics over and over. Every. Single. Task. Yes, I know about context files and skills and custom commands. I use them myself. But let's be honest here, every task you hand to an AI still needs to contain everything.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/vibe-coding-is-like-groundhog-day/
6 days ago
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Vibe coding brought the old dev-tester silo back. Except now engineers are the ones getting half-baked deliverables thrown over the fence. One person + AI agents won't replace a cross-functional team. "You need the full package, man!" New post ✍️
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Vibe Coding and the Return of Throwing Stuff over the Fence
I touched on this topic in my last post. I want to elaborate on this phenomenon some more. Testers, remember the old days? Developers on one side, testers on the other. A fence between them, and code flying over it like a catapult delivery. "Here, we're done. Go find the bugs." No context, no conversation, no shared understanding. Just a lobbed artifact and a prayer.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2026/03/05/vibe-coding-and-the-return-of-throwing-stuff-over-the-fence/
6 days ago
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Providing context to an AI is the same as describing the system in Systems Thinking. No context, generic answer. Good context, more useful answer. It's that simple. Because, you know, IT DEPENDS!
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Context is the System – What AI Prompting and Systems Thinking Have in Common
There is a quote I want to come back to, from Elisabeth Hendrickson: "The word 'context' is shorthand for the cumulative effect of all the past decisions that we cannot change now." Lately I've been thinking about it from a completely different angle. Not in the retrospective sense of "how did we get here", but in a prospective sense. What context do I need to provide, so that someone, or something, can make a good decision going forward?
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2026/03/04/context-is-the-system-what-ai-prompting-and-systems-thinking-have-in-common/
8 days ago
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AI coding tools make Mount Stupid a very crowded place. Everyone thinks now they know how to build software. 10 years ago I talked TestBash Brighton about the Dunning-Kruger effect. Today this phenomenon has reached new heights. Thanks to everyone thinking they are now software engineers!
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Welcome to Mount Stupid or The Illusion of Expertise
If you think that the Mount Everest base camp can be a crowded place, you have not yet been to the top of Mount Stupid. And why is there a parallel between AI and woodworking? Let's find out. Mount Stupid is this virtual place that someone tends to reach when learning about a new topic. They start looking into it, and experience a steep learning curve.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2026/03/01/welcome-to-mount-stupid-or-the-illusion-of-expertise/
11 days ago
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When you describe a model or a system, you tend to forget the influence of yourself. Of course, you don't draw yourself into the model. Your context (a big, invisible box) highly influences it.
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You are Part of the System
Today, we go meta. When listening to a podcast this morning, the above sentence stood out for me. But it was not really further discussed. "You are part of the system." I had to stop the podcast to get my head around that sentence. And understand just how much valuable information is in this statement. When drawing a picture of a system, putting a multi-dimensional mental model into a 2D representation, one often ignores an important aspect.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/you-are-part-of-the-system/
about 1 month ago
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Recently Systems Thinking gained more popularity. There was even a Ministry of Testing event around it. Most of the time I only hear or read that Systems Thinking is important and all the benefits of it. But nobody explained how to actually do it. I try to slightly close that gap.
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Systems Thinking seems to be important, but how does it work?
Systems Thinking is basically Thinking. Systems Thinking approaches or frameworks have been invented to bring structure to thinking and enable modeling and sharing mental models. This also helps to practice thinking, when you have some more tangible ideas to talk about. Because thinking about thinking is quite on the meta level. M = I x OA Mental Model is Information combined with Organization…
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/03/12/systems-thinking-seems-to-be-important-but-how-does-it-work/
12 months ago
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reposted by
Patrick “Grumpy” Prill
Peter Jelinek
about 1 year ago
Eine Rede, die Anerkennung verdient. In 1 Minute zeigt
@ricardalang.bsky.social
, wie man mit der AfD umgehen sollte und ja, sie spricht Friedrich Merz zurecht die Kanzlerfähigkeit ab. Hut ab vor dieser Rede!
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Have you ever thought about the system of a "Button"? A button is an experience. And there is so much attached to it. Let me explain.
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The System of a Button
Buttons are all over the screen I'm looking at. There will be buttons on the screen you read this. There's buttons in your house, in your car, everywhere. And every button is more than just a button. A button is a complex system. "Come on, now you exaggerate!", you might say. Let me explain. A button has a purpose. When you press or click the button, something should happen.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/30/the-system-of-a-button/
about 1 year ago
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We are (still/mostly) working with real people. Users, colleagues, customers. When we want something from them, it helps to understand what they want, so that we can provide these information. This saves time and helps us to understand the system better.
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Empathy – Understanding Motivation in Systems
In the Systems Seeing Adventure we used an Empathy Map on Day 9. This is a nice tool to look at a system from other perspectives. In this case from other humans. My current favorite approach to systems thinking is the DSRP-method. The P stands for Perspective. The idea is to use the perspective of any element of the system to improve its model.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/29/empathy-understanding-motivation-in-systems/
about 1 year ago
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Automating processes as they are can sometimes be like putting lipstick on a pig. Just because you automate it, doesn't make the process better. Maybe start by looking at what you need to automate, before jumping straight into coding.
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Putting Lipstick on the Pig: The Downside of Automation
One issue that I see every now and then is that we tend to automate things because we can. I'm guilty of that myself. Ever since I started writing scripts and tests and tools and what not, I started to automate things. Because I can. Don't get me wrong, automating things is useful and a fantastic opportunity to reduce stupid work.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/27/putting-lipstick-on-the-pig-the-downside-of-automation/
about 1 year ago
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The adventure continues. After a week of practicing some things, we are now defining a key situation and start applying different lenses. This post includes some colorful circles, bad drawings and an empathy map. I took the freedom to bundle 4 days.
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Systems Seeing Adventure – Day 6-9: Looking at a situation from different lenses
I have decided to bundle a few days together. The reason is, that I now need to come up with a situation that the rest of the adventure is using for the exercises. So I need to find something that I can share publicly. On the other hand I want to look at a work-related situation as well. So I will have a simpler situation for the blog, and a more complicated one for myself.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/24/systems-seeing-adventure-day-6-9-looking-at-a-situation-from-different-lenses/
about 1 year ago
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Quality Eats Process for Breakfast. That was the title of a workshop I gave 8 years ago. The message I tried to convey still stands. It's hard to define processes which result in consistent products. Wood working, baking, coffee. But especially in IT.
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Having a process doesn’t mean you get good or consistent results
A topic that keeps coming back to me is pondering about simplification of processes. What is a simple process and what is a complicated or complex process? In which constraints does it make sense to have more or less details? Just because it looks simple doesn't mean it is simple. And just because it looks complex doesn't mean it is complex.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/23/having-a-process-doesnt-mean-you-get-good-results/
about 1 year ago
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One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. So far I was not successful. But I keep trying.
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One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.
This quote is by American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac. And ever since I read this, I aim to achieve it. So far without success. Finding the right and simple words is hard work. The same is said with the quote "I wanted to write you a short letter, but I only had time for a long one", which is assigned to Goethe, Lichtenberg, Pascal, Swift and others.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/22/one-day-i-will-find-the-right-words-and-they-will-be-simple/
about 1 year ago
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Day 5 of the Systems Seeing Adventure. Today's task was to look at a picture and note what we see. The system and the interactions. How is it communicated and conveyed.
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Systems Seeing Adventure – Day 5: Attending (more) Closely
If you want to know more about the System Seeing Adventure, check out this link. My TL;DR: of this session is: What seems simple is rather complex, if you only look close enough. Today's task was to look at a picture and note what we see. The system and the interactions. How is it communicated and conveyed. The picture to look at can be found…
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/21/systems-seeing-adventure-day-5-attending-more-closely/
about 1 year ago
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reposted by
Patrick “Grumpy” Prill
Effin' Birds
about 1 year ago
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What comes after „Clusterfuck“?! Asking for a friend.
about 1 year ago
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I was asking myself last year, why am I trying to get things done as quickly as possible? And it boils down to enjoying the accomplishment more than the journey of reaching it.
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Enjoy the process
Too often I am, and probably we all are, result-driven. Get there fast, get it done, get it out of the way. Or get it automated or implemented in a way that I can reproduce something quickly by the dozen. This applied to nearly every aspect of my life.And I see my daughter now reading a lot of books. But she is always keeping track of how many pages still to read, and likes finishing books.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/20/enjoy-the-process/
about 1 year ago
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Day 4 of the Systems Seeing Adventure. This time it's about watching a TED talk from Dr. Russ Ackoff. The talk is absolutely brilliant. And the task was about sketchnoting and some analysis. Warning: no sketchnoting happened. Not my forte.
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Systems Seeing Adventure – Day 4: Ackoff on Systems
If you want to know more about the System Seeing Adventure, check out this link. The task for Day 4 is watch and sketchnote the TED talk by Dr. Russ Ackoff on Quality Improvements of Systems. I have tried sketchnoting in the past and it was not very successful. This talk by Dr. Ackoff was just a rapid fire of smart statements worth noting down.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/17/systems-seeing-adventure-day-4-ackoff-on-systems/
about 1 year ago
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This is day 3 of the system seeing adventure. It's about exploring system concepts. As I'm quite biased on this topic, I explain the concepts that I'm following at the moment, which are helpful to me as of now.
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System Seeing Adventure – Day 3: Explore System Concepts
The task on day 3 is to explore system concepts and make concept cards out of them. I will pass on this drawing challenge and rather focus on the write-up here. I'm aware of two system concepts that helped me the last 10 years. A decade ago I read the book "Thinking in Systems" by Donella H. Meadows. The basic elements that were used in this approach are stocks, inflow and outflow.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/16/system-seeing-adventure-day-3-explore-system-concepts/
about 1 year ago
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Testing is never done. So we need to find ways to determine, what is "enough".
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The concept of “enough”
This weekend - when you read this, last weekend - I listened to my favorite woodworking podcast. And the topic was "Gratitude, Appreciation and the concept of Enough". "Enough" is a topic that lately rumors in my head all the time. When I look at politics, careers, economics, global warming, ecosystems, billionaires, and all topics along this line. Why do we always need more, more, more.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/15/the-concept-of-enough/
about 1 year ago
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Day 2 of the system seeing challenge set by Ruth Malan here https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ruth-malan-4558153_system-seeing-journal-starter-kit-2025-edition-activity-7282070530961141761-xDk7
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System Seeing Adventure – Day 2: Draw your Org (incl. my take on orgs)
The task on day 2 is not only to draw your org, but draw it in three different ways. The org to draw I choose was my company in its current state. Next step: Draw your org - 3 different ways That was harder than imagined. Next step: Jot down what you learned about your org. Rather team-centric view For some non-tech related functions I have no idea how they are organized…
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/14/system-seeing-adventure-day-2-draw-your-org/
about 1 year ago
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Enjoying complexity Many years ago I learned the basics about the Cynefin Framework. The very basics. To repeat these very basics, Cynefin differentiates events into five different domains. Simple or obvious, Complicated, Complex, Chaos and Unknown or disorder. This helps to understand how to…
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Enjoying complexity
Many years ago I learned the basics about the Cynefin Framework. The very basics. To repeat these very basics, Cynefin differentiates events into five different domains. Simple or obvious, Complicated, Complex, Chaos and Unknown or disorder. This helps to understand how to perceive situations and make sense out of them. Cynefin is based among others on systems thinking, which makes it sometimes a bit tricky to distinguish.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/13/enjoying-complexity/
about 1 year ago
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I built me a scraper plane. Based on plans from an Aussie woodworker. The plane is made from pieces of hornbeam, ash tree and apple tree. The blade is from an old Anant jointer plane.
about 1 year ago
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Systems Seeing Adventure – Day 1: Draw a Bike My friend Vernon made me aware of this post from Ruth Malan. It's about a 31 day systems seeing adventure. This is fully up my alley at the moment. So I'll take you with me on this journey. Next step: Draw a bubble diagram of a bike. This task is for…
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Systems Seeing Adventure – Day 1: Draw a Bike
My friend Vernon made me aware of this post from Ruth Malan. It's about a 31 day systems seeing adventure. This is fully up my alley at the moment. So I'll take you with me on this journey. Next step: Draw a bubble diagram of a bike. This task is for me. Two years ago I built a gravel bike with a bamboo frame from scratch.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/10/systems-seeing-adventure-day-1-draw-a-bike/
about 1 year ago
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In my first test conference talk I spoke about a model to help understand how knowledge grows. It's 2D, and despite the complexity of the world, I think it still works brilliantly. So here I give you the rain drop model.
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Making connections – the rain drop model
In 2016 I gave my first talk at a testing conference - TestBash Brighton. The topic was about the power of ignorance. One model that I tried to convey back then was the rain drop model. Based on the concentric circles that rain drops produce on the water surface. Each rain drop stands for a particular topic or system. The growing circle demonstrates the growth of knowledge.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/making-connections-the-rain-drop-model/
about 1 year ago
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reposted by
Patrick “Grumpy” Prill
Der Volksverpetzer
about 1 year ago
Erzeugt ein Solarschiff wirklich genauso viel Strom wie 100 Kohleschiffe, wie die internationale Energieagentur sagte? Nein! Das Verhältnis ist sogar noch um einiges besser, schreibt
@graslutscher.de
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www.volksverpetzer.de/faktencheck/...
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Solar vs. Kohle: Diese Grafik ist Fake! (das Verhältnis ist sogar noch besser)
Erzeugt ein Solarschiff wirklich genauso viel Strom wie 100 Kohleschiffe, wie die internationale Energieagentur sagte? Nein! Das Verhältnis ist sogar noch besser.
https://www.volksverpetzer.de/faktencheck/solar-verhaeltnis-noch-besser/
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If you focus on now, you will tomorrow have a better yesterday. But, if you are aware of yesterday and already think about tomorrow (or next year), you might also make better decisions today.
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Time – the forgotten dimension
Over time your mental model evolves. With your next bit of information your model improves one step further. But that's not the aspect of time I want to talk about. The system at hand gets older, time passes by, bits and pieces of the system change. That's the aspect of time I want to talk about. Time is a very important dimension in your mental models.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/08/time-the-forgotten-dimension/
about 1 year ago
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Let's start the new year with a rant. Models of ways of working in Agile look all so smooth and clean. Reality looks a bit different.
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Cycle models are just hiding many small parallel and cascading waterfalls
Unpopular opinion: even in Agile we just work in many small waterfalls or V-models, in parallel, all the time. Scrum and Kanban in action feels more like my ADHD brain works. Doing all the things, all the time, and in parallel. Don't get me wrong. My brain is fine with working that way. But do you know what is merely impossible?
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/07/every-cycle-model-is-just-hiding-many-small-parallel-and-cascading-waterfalls/
about 1 year ago
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Let's start the week with a rant. I don't even know where I wanted to go with this blog post. But things needed to come out. Maybe I will write more on the topic soon, when more structure evolves. It's not simple.
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The urge for simplicity
Recently this is a topic all around me. At work, at home, in the news. The world has become a complex place. Well it always was, but as we stand on the shoulders of giants, we are able to understand more and more of it now. This requires more knowledge than anyone is able to gain in a lifetime. This is overwhelming.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/06/the-urge-for-simplicity/
about 1 year ago
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If something is simple, it comes with boundaries. The complexity is in the boundaries. Providing less boundaries might look simpler, but it is actually more complex to use and vice versa.
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Simplicity means shifting complexity
I recently thought a lot about simplicity and complexity. And I came to the conclusion, that simplicity is often only possible when you shift complexity. The complexity doesn't go away. Setting boundaries reduces complexity, but someone has to set these boundaries. Sometimes the shift is from many to few, sometimes from few to many. Let me explain my thought. Let's start with a wood working example.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/simplicity-means-shifting-complexity/
about 1 year ago
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I don't have a new year's resolution. I want to be better today than I was yesterday. I want to improve one tiny step at a time. Learn from failure AND success. This year is not gonna be THE year. But today is another day. So use it. Have a healthy 2025!
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Let’s get better one day at a time
From my point of view 2025 is set up to be another shitty year - on a large / global scale. But that doesn't mean it will be a shitty year on a level that I have some control over. I can get better one day at a time, one step at a time. One of my favorite wood workers always says, just be better today than you were yesterday.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2025/01/02/lets-get-better-one-day-at-a-time/
about 1 year ago
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reposted by
Patrick “Grumpy” Prill
Maria Ismanah 🌳🌱💦🦋
about 1 year ago
Climate Change is real - don"t ask a polititians, ask an insurance company: Munich Re’s Climate Risk Preparedness Survey 2023/24
#climateChange
#climateRisk
#climateCrisis
#MunichRe
#preparedness
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Climate change is real – Are you prepared? | Munich Re
https://www.munichre.com/en/insights/natural-disaster-and-climate-change/climate-risk-survey.html
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This is my last post before the year-end break. I will be back in the new year. Projects and products need certain fundamental rules and processes. It's like building a house on sand. It can work if it's only a small wooden hut.
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Nobody likes the foundation
You can build a lot of crazy things with the right foundation. You can also build a lot of crazy things without the right foundation, only then they won't last long. But it's so much easier. This is true for constructions like buildings or bridges, friendships, processes, skills, money and so many more. With a solid foundation you have something to rely on, to fall back on.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/20/nobody-likes-the-foundation/
about 1 year ago
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Assumptions are quickly made. Especially when you put the "rest of the system" into a nice "context" box.
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Context, assumptions and why communication sucks
What a weird title. Let me unfold. What is context in terms of systems thinking? Nothing, actually. There is no "context" in systems thinking. The context is part of the system. We just tend to pack it up, store it away and try to look at problems in an isolated way. How often have you heard or even given the answer: "it depends"?
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/19/context-assumptions-and-why-communication-sucks/
about 1 year ago
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The more complex a system is, the closer it operates at the brink of failure. And in probably all cases its humans that cause systems to fail. This blog is a big rant. Or actually many small rants. If you don't want to get in a bad mood, don't read it.
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Complex systems are bound to fail
When a system works, we - humans - too often ensure that we bring it to the brink of failure. Many systems around us are working at the edge of failure. Any issue of a certain severity makes it fail. Reliability seems to be an afterthought, robustness just too expensive. We want to make everything better, more efficient, more effective, just more.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/18/complex-systems-are-bound-to-fail/
about 1 year ago
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To be or not to be. That is the question. Describing what something is, is obvious. What it is not, is not that obvious. Yet often it can be helpful to describe what it is not, to emphasize what it actually is.
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Differentiae – where is the difference
In an article from August 2019 my friend Damian Synadinos taught me about the concept of "differentia". The distinguishing characteristics of a thing that makes it possible to differentiate it from another thing. In the DSRP-method for systems thinking, D stands for Distinction. It's all about what a node of the system is and what it is not. Sometimes that's as easy as, this tree is this tree and not all the other trees around it.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/17/differentiae-where-is-the-difference/
about 1 year ago
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For some a relation might be only a line or an arrow between two nodes. The relation is its own thing and should be treated as such. It can help a lot in many situations. Not only in testing.
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The relation is its own thing
When it comes to systems thinking you can take different routes how to make up the model. I have not looked into the 50+ different approaches to system thinking that I found in a list earlier this year. But I assume that connecting two elements has to be part of every approach, somehow. When you look at two elements with a relation, the relation is actually an element of its own.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/16/the-relation-is-its-own-thing/
about 1 year ago
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This is my 8th blog post this year, and that within 8 working days. I want to give you a short explanation, why I'm writing so explicitly about topics around systems thinking.
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Why am I writing so much about Systems Thinking?
TL;DR: It's one of the most versatile tools, that should be in everybody's tool box. When I think back, I'd guess that at some point in my twenties I became a solid yet unconscious systems thinker. In 2000 I started working in professional IT, and there were systems everywhere. Networks, servers, clients, databases, you name it. In IT we have systems all around us.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/13/why-am-i-writing-so-much-about-systems-thinking/
about 1 year ago
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Web of Causation and why I don’t like 5 Whys Before we start, I have to add, that I don't like 5 Whys how I have seen it often done. This is my personal, not very exhaustive experience. Maybe your experience is different. In that case, please take a moment and think about what you do differently…
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Web of Causation and why I don’t like 5 Whys
Before we start, I have to add, that I don't like 5 Whys how I have seen it often done. This is my personal, not very exhaustive experience. Maybe your experience is different. In that case, please take a moment and think about what you do differently and how that makes it a more successful approach. Why do I not like 5 Whys?
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/12/web-of-causation-and-why-i-dont-like-5-whys/
about 1 year ago
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Taking different perspectives is important to understand complex or chaotic situations better. Different perspectives help to complete the picture of the model to understand it better.
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Perspectives in systems thinking, again – part 2
I want to spend another post on perspectives, as it is such a valuable, yet difficult topic. Perspective is the magic behind empathy. Perspective helps you to get better in understanding your environment. My wife must already be very annoyed with me. Sometimes she and basically everyone, just wants to have an opinion on something. Keeping it simple. Letting off steam.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/11/perspectives-in-systems-thinking-again-part-2/
over 1 year ago
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Testing techniques, methods and approaches represent perspectives in systems thinking.
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Perspectives in Testing
Testing and Systems Thinking are two activities that overlap widely. In yesterday's post I mentioned that you can take the perspective of every part and relation in a system. In software testing a lot of techniques, approaches and methods that we use are ways to actively take a certain perspective of the system. What in systems thinking is reflected by different perspectives, manifests in testing into for example:
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/10/perspectives-in-testing/
over 1 year ago
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The perspective taken in a system, can drastically change the model itself. But it can also help explaining a system to others in a more effective way.
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Perspectives in systems thinking – part 1
A former colleague of mine, Martin Schmidt, has commented under my last article about simplifying model views. The right level of abstraction is important to communicate to different audiences. And I can't agree more. First of all, perspectives are a really interesting thing in systems thinking. It can turn around a model about one thing into something completely different. Just by changing the perspective.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/09/perspectives-in-systems-thinking-part-1/
over 1 year ago
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reposted by
Patrick “Grumpy” Prill
Effin' Birds
over 1 year ago
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Sometimes models are too complex to share with a wider audience. Simplifying the model doesn't make the underlying system less complex though. It lowers the bar for engagement.
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Simplifying the view doesn’t make the system less complex
Sometimes models are too complex to share with a wider audience. Simplifying the model doesn't make it less complex though. It lowers the bar for engagement.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/06/simplifying-the-view-doesnt-make-the-system-less-complex/
over 1 year ago
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I love a good complex system. Only just recently I learned about this connection between simple and complex, that made so much sense in hindsight for me. And I will practice to use this from now on more often.
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Simple is not the opposite of complex
Simple is not the opposite of complex. Complex systems are made of simple rules.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/05/simple-is-not-the-opposite-of-complex/
over 1 year ago
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Testing is a lot about zooming in and zooming out. When zooming out leaves the product borders, it's about more than just testing.
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When a tester gets the zoomies
Testing is a lot about zooming in and zooming out. When zooming out leaves the product borders, it's about more than just testing.
https://testpappy.wordpress.com/2024/12/04/when-a-tester-gets-the-zoomies/
over 1 year ago
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