Post ASx3LJQM3lkPEngyqu by powersoffour@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by powersoffour@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #ASx2udUlKOUlfV295c by nicole@pkm.social
2023-02-22T22:22:04Z
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From reading *The Rules We Break* by Eric Zimmerman recently (thanks @apolaine ), one thing that stood out was the idea of having a "ludic attitude" about something not typically considered "play".As a software testing engineer, I think testing is the quintessential career for lovers of play. One of the best parts of the job is the hand-rubbing glee of figuring out how an application works... and how to make it break.#TIL Highlights: https://notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/Readwise/Books/The+Rules+We+BreakNotes: https://notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/Play
(DIR) Post #ASx3LJQM3lkPEngyqu by powersoffour@mastodon.social
2023-02-22T22:26:45Z
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@nicole @apolaine I love love love thinking about how play factors into different careers and expressions of a craft! Thank you for this!
(DIR) Post #ASx4VgtZkUDasmsAqm by nicole@pkm.social
2023-02-22T22:39:57Z
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@powersoffour Yeah, I must admit that I had never quite thought of work as play, but that is totally what it is and why I love what I do!
(DIR) Post #ASxRTodCJX3VF2Hqsa by andy@pkm.social
2023-02-23T02:57:19Z
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@nicole I agree! I remember once in grad school, Cem Kaner and I were talking and he brought up a book about play as having possible connections to exploratory testing. It might have been “Play as Exploratory Learning” or something like that. I’ll have to check my bookshelves. Not sure if he ever did more with the idea.
(DIR) Post #ASy6g7BxEDACOyWllY by gothnbass@linuxrocks.online
2023-02-23T10:38:57Z
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@nicole @apolaine As an infrastructure engineer, I've gotten a funny look from many people in response to me referring to playing with systems.It's as though they think playing with something is mutually exclusive with taking it seriously.
(DIR) Post #ASy9xvoUZU52Bfjy9Q by nicole@pkm.social
2023-02-23T11:15:49Z
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@gothnbass @apolaine I often work with infrastructure engineers and wish more of them felt the same way as you! "What do you mean, you want to disrupt traffic from that microservice?? You think that might be FUN?!" In distributed systems, there's often so much going on that finding performance issues requires an element of serious play.
(DIR) Post #ASyDGaK4zqKots6LvE by apolaine@pkm.social
2023-02-23T11:52:41Z
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@nicole @gothnbass it’s interesting though, engineers do talk about finding or needing play in a system or in mechanics. Also about noodling with some technology to explore and build.
(DIR) Post #ASyGZqvJndglkbOmmG by nicole@pkm.social
2023-02-23T12:29:50Z
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@apolaine @gothnbass Absolutely, I think play in the sense of a buffer or jitter works in this context too. A distributed system that doesn't have enough "play" is prone to the thundering herd problem (https://notes.nicolevanderhoeven.com/Thundering+herd). We often have to introduce a circuit breaker to manage and direct that play.Conversely, systems have to be built to account for play in user behaviour too. I like to include unexpected variations when I write scripts to test systems, because real humans are chaotic.
(DIR) Post #ASybP9B5giYYDYVqTY by apolaine@pkm.social
2023-02-23T16:23:10Z
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@nicole @gothnbass exactly. I think people use play mindsets, metaphors and thinking much more than they are aware of.