working on the weekend

it's a sunday.

i woke up read "A Few Words on Testing" by Thorsten Ball.

https://registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/a-few-words-on-testing

the article is fine. it's short, you should read it. this isn't about the article. it's about what it reminded me of - this one test at work.

the one test that takes a minute to run, when it should take seconds. the one test that's nearly twice as slow as the next slowest test. the one test i've tried and failed to speed up already.

i was *mad* at the test.

so, despite it being sunday morning, i brought my work laptop to bed and worked on it.

i sped it up. it's twice as fast now. this isn't about how i sped it up, but what it made me think about.

is it bad to work at the weekend if its of my own volition? if i follow this link of thinking too far, here is where i get:

• this is outside my contracted hours, i'm not being paid
• i'm (in theory) making other developers more productive. they spend less time waiting for tests
• those developers can spend more time "creating value"
• features happen quicker, more bugs get fixed
• ... some levels skipped for brevity ...
• some c-level executive gets a pay bump larger than everyone on our team combined

but then i think about it from the opposite direction:

• i am enjoying this
• so why not do it
• it doesn't feel like work
• when i stop enjoying it i can just stop

in the end, i decided to stop thinking too much about it. i made the test quicker, and then i did something else.