I agree. I would say the observations you give as examples are backed by evidence and thus interesting to read (and, in fact, legitimate). I stated my case badl

I agree. I would say the observations you give as examples are backed by evidence and thus interesting to read (and, in fact, legitimate). I stated my case badly, but I would include such statements in the third category. I meant what I said to be a call for civilized discussion about the topic which echoes your sentiment. I also wanted to point out that such discussions have an annoyingly low signal-to-noise ratio. [Edit] I also was not trying to suggest a general strategy for evaluating programming practices. I made the assertion it was clear TDD has value at least in certain contexts. In the case of TDD I think it is evident its benefits are subtle enough to approach the issue more carefully.