Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals: #05 Practice makes perfect (熟能生巧)

It’s only a matter of practice.

image credit: https://daily-language.com/2021/08/08/%E6%88%90%E8%AF%AD-%E7%86%9F%E8%83%BD%E7%94%9F%E5%B7%A7/

This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series.

Story

Chen Yaozi was a renowned archer. Every time he performed, a large crowd gathered to watch.

One day an old man who made his living selling oil happened to pass by. Seeing the crowd before him, he stopped to watch, too.

All eyes were on Yaozi. His shots were quite precise, about 70–80% hitting the centre of the target. The crowd cheered him with rounds and rounds of applause. The old man, however, just nodded his head. He did not seem to be very impressed.

Yaozi was not pleased, he stalked angrily up to the old man and eyed him from head to foot. “Do you know how to shoot?” he snapped.

The old man shook his head and said, “No, I don’t! Still, I don’t think there’s anything special about your performance. It’s only a matter of practice.”

Yaozi flew into a temper. “You hardly know a thing about archery,” he snarled, “yet you’re pretending to be an expert!”

“Don’t get upset over what I said!” said the old man. “I make my living selling oil, and through the years I’ve mastered a little trick. Let me show you this trick, then you’ll see what I mean.”

ancient Chinese coin

The old man set his oil gourd on the ground and placed a coin over its mouth. He then stood up and began pouring oil using a ladle. The oil went straight through the hole of the coin, filling up the oil gourd without staining the coin at all. Yaozi and the audience were astonished.

“There’s nothing special about this,” smiled the old man. “It’s only a matter of practice.”

From then on, Yaozi became a humble and better archer.

Example In Test Automation

End-to-End (UI) Automated Testing is commonly in an awkward state in software teams. The managers acknowledge its benefits, and the team members might have seen some demonstrations, but have had no practical use for the work. The team conducts functional testing manually.