I think there's some arguing past each other in discussion of this. You've seen some terrible programmers who don't write unit tests, and I (and others) have se

I think there's some arguing past each other in discussion of this. You've seen some terrible programmers who don't write unit tests, and I (and others) have seen terrible programmers that do write (terrible) unit tests. Tests that mock everything and test nothing. Tests that assert bad implementation details but not important results. Huge volumes of terrible tests that are a huge burden. I agree, having some good tests is very good. Obviously. But I disagree with the hypothetical statement "someone writing a lot of tests is always doing a better thing than someone writing a lot fewer tests". No silver bullet and all that. Also annoyed by "agile methodologies" and "best practices" in general. Good sense and taste really can't be turned into a list of rules you can blindly apply anywhere. I suggest reading http://alistair.cockburn.us/Characterizing+people+as+non-linear,+first-order+components+in+software+development/v/slim http://alistair.cockburn.us/Characterizing+people+as+non-lin...