It's impossible for a creative artist to be either a Puritan or a
Fascist, because both are a negation of the creative urge. The only
things a creative artist can be opposed to are ugliness and injustice.
Liam O'Flaherty

Ugliness and injustice are two of the things I really don't tolerate well in software. This is why I'm so passionate about human testing. Testing for usability. Buying software that is terrible to use is both ugly and unjust! I take great pride in preventing that from happening whenever possible.

I had a conversation with my boyfriend this week. He was telling me about his day. He writes code and actually enjoys it. He explained to me calmly what branching was, to which I replied, "I know what a branch is, remember?" He continued to tell me the tale of code until 10 minutes later I said, "Can we get to the more condensed version of this story, because you lost me 30 seconds ago?" He replied to that, "Oh, I forgot, you aren't really a technical person."

For about 3 hours I felt offended by that. Finally I came to a realization. He is entirely right. I am a creative person with technical ability. When I make effort to understand technology, I get my jollies thinking about the big picture. What that technology could do. For me, the exciting part is in the application, not the details of how the technology works.

Some people are scientists at their heart. I am proud to be me, an artist, who has learned science, but will always be an artist first.

I believe it's easier for a creative person to learn science than for a scientific person to learn to be creative, but I am delighted that we have both. I believe to be a great tester, it is important to have both, whichever way you get there.