As we approached Arlanda, I noticed something I recognised: I had checked out the conference venue on Google Eearth at home, and here was something that looked familiar:
“Can I get off here, please?”, I asked.
“Sorry no, we’re out of parachutes”, the air hostess replied.
Ok, I could live with that: Esko Arajärvi was flying in from Finland, and thanks to the excellent travelling page of the conference, he had offered me a ride in the car he rented, and he was waiting for me. I love when things go as planned!
Runö is a very beautiful place. “Is this heaven?” Michael Bolton asked in his opening keynote, but then said no, since his family wasn’t here. Good point!
Michael was as good as ever, telling us that while everyone has a desire for certainity, we’re fundamentally incompetent whenever we do something new. Testing is fundamentally about acceptance, acceptance that we’re fallible, incompetent, etc, but we can learn from failure.
Mature people don’t try to get rid of failure, they manage it. So do we. We know that failure is an important part of the process and the trigger for us is to find out what’s wrong and make it better.
In fact, certainty can be damaging, and “a key part of our service is to reduce unwarranted and potentially damaging certanity about the product.”
I’m taking a break now. I’m still working my presentation tomorrow; I work best under pressure, and the pressure is building up! Besides, Michael gave me more good inspiration which I have to process!
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