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Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals: #1 Seven-Step Poem (七步詩)
Practical Test for candidates; Work on the common goal rather than narrow interests
This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series.
On Nov 2, 2021, Elon Musk tweeted with a Chinese poem, in literally Chinese characters.
This is the translation on Wikipedia.
Beanstalks are ignited to boil beans,
In the pot, the beans weep.
[We are] born of the selfsame root,
Why in such a rush to fry me!
The tweet made global news. There were plenty of analysing articles on Elon Musk's intention behind the tweet, such as ‘climate change’ and ‘tension between Taiwan and mainland China”. A humorous one: "Elon is posting a bean recipe".
Table of Contents:· Why am I writing this?
· Why use Chinese idioms (in English)?
· Story: Seven-Step Poem
· For Software Professionals
∘ 1. Using practical tests for job candidates
∘ 2. Work on the common goal, rather than narrow interests
Why am I writing this?
My daughter is about to start her first IT job (internship) in a few weeks’ time. Though programming and testing is largely objective, 0 or 1, software development is a human activity. Therefore, it will have all highs and lows when working with other people. Here I want to share with her my over 20 years of experience in a fun way.
A few years ago, a thought came to me: “use Chinese idioms to explain some of the problems I have witnessed in the software industry (in particular, test automation and continuous testing) ”. Human nature has changed little, and these Chinese idioms stand the test of time (over 1000 years).
While I wrote these for my daughter, I will make them publicly available.
Frankly, my preparation is not fully ready yet. However, I got encouraged by Elon Musk’s tweet. I have to start from somewhere. Why not from here now?
