WHY I HATE METALLICA

The 4-Note Bass Line…

I’m pretty much a head-banging metal fan, but I’ve always hated Metallica. Seems almost sacrilegious, doesn’t it?

Well, I was a music major in college; had three scholarships in performance (that’s the only way I could have paid for college), and I was cursed with close to perfect pitch. Those of you similarly affected know what I mean. Music or people that are out-of-tune make me cry.

It also means that I can usually pick out any given melodic line, as long as the timbre is somewhat different.

Thus the Metallica bass line. It’s like, 4 notes, repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

By the end of a Metallica song, I’m a headbanger, all right. Banging my head against a wall until my brains leak out my ears, screaming. I hate anything excessively repetitive. That means I’ve never been fond of instrumental jazz. One instruments flogs the crap out of a theme, then another instrument picks it up and does the same thing. While I appreciate the skill of the musicians, the music itself gives me a headache.

This means that to some deep thinkers, I pretty much have the attention span of a chicken. It’s not in my nature to ponder the same thoughts over and over. I dislike “standing meetings” that are at the same time, same place, every week. I have to force myself to go and will eventually find reasons to skip some. I don’t even go to work or go home the same way every day. I’m easily bored. It’s so bad that if I’m stuck in some kind of repetitive rut, I actually begin to suffer both physically and mentally – becoming exhausted, listless, and lethargic.

So as riveting as this glimpse into the depths of my persona might be, where, one might ask, is all this leading?

To my last pitch and set of comments, ever again in this lifetime, regarding schools. Yes, that pitched battle is still raging.

I can only assume November and December have been slow months.

Primary proponents of the idea continue to be members of the Context-Driven Test community.

I understand, and I even agree with some of what has been said about what the positive aspects of schools COULD BE if only things were different. I also understand what those proponents of the idea WISH IT WAS.

But that is not what it IS RIGHT NOW and it is not WHAT IT HAS BECOME.

CDT members, no one wants to play with you. That means the only acknowledged school you’ve got is your own. You’ve got some of the best minds in the field. My suggestion is that you use them to look at what went wrong and what you would need to do in order to save the original concept. Telling me, or others “this is what schools mean”; hearkening back to the original concept, with no acknowledgement of how that concept has really been used or how it has mutated in the intervening 5 years or so, is ignoring reality. And I have no patience with people who can’t recognize reality.

It’s much easier to point at others and say they don’t understand than to acknowledge that maybe some of you have made some pretty major gaffes, isn’t it? I understand that. You’re a very prolific group, are you not? Where are all of your posts accepting a large chunk of the responsibility for the failure to have the concept widely accepted? An exploration of where you went wrong? Suggestions as to how to make the concept workable?

Regardless, at the moment, you’re a 4-note bass line. I’ve heard all this before. Give me something new; something better; something that has included the thoughts of people outside your group; something useful; something workable. Show me something that DOES WHAT YOU CLAIM IT DOES, dammit, and don’t waste my time pontificating about what it COULD do, if only virtually everything was different than it actually is.

I could pull a dozen comments made by acknowledged leaders of Context-Driven Testing right now that use the terminology and/or concepts associated with different “schools” in derogatory and belittling ways. This has been going on for a long time – I don’t really understand what appears to surprise at the resulting lack of enthusiasm for embracing the concept.

I don’t know if anyone else out there has had to have diversity training, but one of the first things you learn is that you are responsible for your own actions and the results of those actions, and that if other people give you the courtesy of telling you what is wrong and why, you should listen, and make every attempt to see that point of view and respond appropriately. It seems to me that many people brought up the problems they have with the concept of “schools” and the response has been either “No, no, no.”, or “You’re wrong.”, followed by yet another description of what schools SHOULD be. But they aren’t. And a lot of that is your own fault, CDT. No one treated with contemptuous disrespect for years is going to raise their hand and ask for more. “Oh yes, sir”, “I do, in fact, poop out detailed test scripts on command and am, in fact, proud to be a member of the School of Steaming Piles of Tests (SPOT)”. It just ain’t gonna happen.

I’m starting to get that head-banging urge, so I’m going to stop now (sighs of relief); I can’t believe I posted multiple times on a single topic. I feel dirty…