Curtis the Cowboy Tester
@thecowboytester.bsky.social
Quality Engineer, Software Tester, Public Speaker, Educator, Author, and Thought Leader are just some of the words I’ve read in profiles here
After two years of questioning why Cowboy Testing continues to languish I’ve realized I have been waffling all this time. I need to make a real go of it or shut it down completely.
January 24, 2025 at 4:25 PM
After two years of questioning why Cowboy Testing continues to languish I’ve realized I have been waffling all this time. I need to make a real go of it or shut it down completely.
Part of the difficulty people are having with finding tech employment is the flood of unqualified applicants who swarm any posting. LI is insane right now. I’m debating abandoning it as a gateway service because it’s hard to distinguish yourself among 1500 others.
January 23, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Part of the difficulty people are having with finding tech employment is the flood of unqualified applicants who swarm any posting. LI is insane right now. I’m debating abandoning it as a gateway service because it’s hard to distinguish yourself among 1500 others.
If you cannot answer why you are executing the specific test case in front of you as opposed to the 349 other test cases you could be executing right now you are seriously misunderstanding what intention and risk is within software testing.
January 3, 2025 at 12:45 AM
If you cannot answer why you are executing the specific test case in front of you as opposed to the 349 other test cases you could be executing right now you are seriously misunderstanding what intention and risk is within software testing.
Someone popped up on my LinkedIn wall and got me thinking. Does anyone else find a middle aged white single guy who decides to suddenly relocate to Thailand sort of immediately suspect? No? It's not just me?
December 27, 2024 at 10:36 PM
Someone popped up on my LinkedIn wall and got me thinking. Does anyone else find a middle aged white single guy who decides to suddenly relocate to Thailand sort of immediately suspect? No? It's not just me?
I'm just a boy scrolling on a social media platform randomly following people from Seattle because this weather has made me nostalgic. I may not have been grunge, but I was grunge adjacent. Maybe "groth" describes me best.
December 21, 2024 at 10:15 PM
I'm just a boy scrolling on a social media platform randomly following people from Seattle because this weather has made me nostalgic. I may not have been grunge, but I was grunge adjacent. Maybe "groth" describes me best.
The Venn diagram between people who think the NBA has a "three point problem" and the people who mock the WNBA is a near perfect circle. Basketball is not a gladiatorial cage match. You shouldn't require seeing muscular giants fighting under a net to be amused.
December 21, 2024 at 9:16 PM
The Venn diagram between people who think the NBA has a "three point problem" and the people who mock the WNBA is a near perfect circle. Basketball is not a gladiatorial cage match. You shouldn't require seeing muscular giants fighting under a net to be amused.
Get your partner a sword for the holidays. An actual metal sword. Don't worry if they'll not like it. If they don't, they are weak and will not protect you during the apocalypse. They are not for you.
December 21, 2024 at 8:41 PM
Get your partner a sword for the holidays. An actual metal sword. Don't worry if they'll not like it. If they don't, they are weak and will not protect you during the apocalypse. They are not for you.
People pushing hard for Linux don't seem to get it. it's not about whether a Linux distro is better than Windows. It is. They all are. It's about whether or not I can play Roblox with the people on my Discord server without needing to use VMs or 3rd party emulators.
December 21, 2024 at 8:36 PM
People pushing hard for Linux don't seem to get it. it's not about whether a Linux distro is better than Windows. It is. They all are. It's about whether or not I can play Roblox with the people on my Discord server without needing to use VMs or 3rd party emulators.
So what is the generally accepted practice here for followers. I have recently had several young women I don't immediately recognize as people I know or bots (or SWs) follow me. Is it typical to groom your follower list or do we not care? Also "groom" may be an unfortunate phrase in this case.
December 21, 2024 at 8:27 PM
So what is the generally accepted practice here for followers. I have recently had several young women I don't immediately recognize as people I know or bots (or SWs) follow me. Is it typical to groom your follower list or do we not care? Also "groom" may be an unfortunate phrase in this case.
Am I alone in being very excited for the coming day when your car will snitch on you for being a bad driver? I want insurance to charge bad drivers more for liability insurance. It will make my life so much better and safer when there is motivation to not be a jerk.
December 20, 2024 at 2:00 AM
Am I alone in being very excited for the coming day when your car will snitch on you for being a bad driver? I want insurance to charge bad drivers more for liability insurance. It will make my life so much better and safer when there is motivation to not be a jerk.
I'm a simple man. I have simple pleasures. I enjoy a warm saag paneer with biryani. I enjoy a night time fog. I enjoy cat hugs. I enjoy fulfilling and challenging work. I take a moment to be present and enjoy each of these when I can experience them.
December 20, 2024 at 1:56 AM
I'm a simple man. I have simple pleasures. I enjoy a warm saag paneer with biryani. I enjoy a night time fog. I enjoy cat hugs. I enjoy fulfilling and challenging work. I take a moment to be present and enjoy each of these when I can experience them.
Saying you won't talk to a candidate you feel is over qualified reminds me of people who refuse to accept a date with someone they think is too attractive for them. It's a reflection of your own insecurities and not about candidate fitness.
December 20, 2024 at 1:22 AM
Saying you won't talk to a candidate you feel is over qualified reminds me of people who refuse to accept a date with someone they think is too attractive for them. It's a reflection of your own insecurities and not about candidate fitness.
The testing pyramid is an outdated mental model, or at least is inappropriate for CI/CD pipelines. The reason is they seldom fail in a pipeline. Failures more often occur at the system or integration layers. Tests leveraging the UI are flaky, slow, and hard to root cause.
December 20, 2024 at 12:53 AM
The testing pyramid is an outdated mental model, or at least is inappropriate for CI/CD pipelines. The reason is they seldom fail in a pipeline. Failures more often occur at the system or integration layers. Tests leveraging the UI are flaky, slow, and hard to root cause.
Testing 101: A test has three elements. It has an intention, actions, and experiences. Learning is when the experiences impact the intention and/or actions. If the experiences have no impact on either, you have stopped learning anything relative to the test. "Relative to the test" is intentional.
December 19, 2024 at 8:37 PM
Testing 101: A test has three elements. It has an intention, actions, and experiences. Learning is when the experiences impact the intention and/or actions. If the experiences have no impact on either, you have stopped learning anything relative to the test. "Relative to the test" is intentional.
I purchased my current electric vehicle because it was manufactured by a company that makes cars employing people with passion and experience designing cars. It has knobs and buttons. It feels like I'm driving a working car. Tapping a hamburger menu to change the air temp makes me cross.
December 19, 2024 at 8:23 PM
I purchased my current electric vehicle because it was manufactured by a company that makes cars employing people with passion and experience designing cars. It has knobs and buttons. It feels like I'm driving a working car. Tapping a hamburger menu to change the air temp makes me cross.
This may be a splash of cold water on various techies, but there is almost no way to secure your data from a motivated nation state actor. They have access to nearly unlimited resources and technology. The best way to guarantee your privacy is to simply not generate any electronic data. Go analog.
December 19, 2024 at 8:14 PM
This may be a splash of cold water on various techies, but there is almost no way to secure your data from a motivated nation state actor. They have access to nearly unlimited resources and technology. The best way to guarantee your privacy is to simply not generate any electronic data. Go analog.
Revisiting my abandoned Software Testing Fundamentals material. I’m focusing on theory because I feel the existing material leans too heavy into the practical.
December 14, 2024 at 3:45 PM
Revisiting my abandoned Software Testing Fundamentals material. I’m focusing on theory because I feel the existing material leans too heavy into the practical.
Day three of counting days
December 14, 2024 at 3:43 PM
Day three of counting days
That moment when your therapist is too young to get a Peanuts reference.
December 14, 2024 at 2:56 AM
That moment when your therapist is too young to get a Peanuts reference.
If we agree the purpose of testing software is to find bugs then must we also agree a test case that passes has no value?
December 13, 2024 at 4:10 PM
If we agree the purpose of testing software is to find bugs then must we also agree a test case that passes has no value?
The part of me that spends days in open world games just exploring for an armor set is very cross we never got a “28 Months Later.”
December 11, 2024 at 4:23 PM
The part of me that spends days in open world games just exploring for an armor set is very cross we never got a “28 Months Later.”
One of my current professional regrets is not being able to accept speaking engagements due to lack of funds or sponsorship. I always deeply enjoy the collaboration of teaching.
December 11, 2024 at 4:20 PM
One of my current professional regrets is not being able to accept speaking engagements due to lack of funds or sponsorship. I always deeply enjoy the collaboration of teaching.