What Filter Do You Have On?

Continuing on with my "Meme Theme". There is a particular category of Meme called a distinction meme. (Brodie happens to divide memes up into 3 categories: Distinction, Strategies, and Associations). Everything around us is just stuff. Anytime you talk about this "stuff", it's just a concept that has been concocted (a set of memes). Remember, a meme "is just a unit of information in a mind whose existence influences events such that more copies of itself get created." So, I thought, those people who happen to follow a particular "school" of testing, whether it be the Context Driven approach, the Agile approach, the TDD approach, whatever, those approaches/concepts are just there because we say so. We have just been programmed with a meme for those particular approaches. You are probably saying to yourself, yeah, who cares. That's the approach I've chosen to follow. Why does this matter?

"Distinctions are one kind of meme. They are ways of carving up the world by categorizing or labeling things."

The part I found particularly interesting about this distinction-meme is that when you choose this particular distinction-meme (whatever that may be) you now start to "see" certain kinds of things, but lose sight of others. It's almost like you've put on a pair of glasses that filter our certain kinds of light. The important part of this distinction-meme concept, in my opinion, is to really be aware of what distinction-memes you have been programmed with; and to keep in mind that you (you referring to that particular group of humans spreading that meme) have invented this particular distinction, and, along with all other distinction-memes, it's not "reality." To quote Brodie:

"If you see it's a meme, and not the Truth, you open up the possibility of other memes to talk about the same thing."

I'm now thinking to myself, because I've chosen to follow a particular approach to testing (I've chosen this distinction-meme), "What kinds of things have I gained access to by adopting this approach, and what things have I lost sight of?" Let's say it's the distinction-meme of the Context Driven school. Seeing as it's an approach I've chosen to be infected with, I think one of the benefits of the Context Drive school is that it focuses on testers being "aware" of what's going on while they test. Now, remember, the distinction-meme states that "it's useful to be conscious of what distinction-memes you're programmed with" as this helps you be aware of why you have these distinctions -- and that you are not just blindly adopting them. As one of the basic principles of the context approach states:

There are good practices in context, but there are no best practices.

What distinction-memes were the founders of the context-driven approach infected with? Why did they chose to replicate those particular memes. I need to find out more.