This is not something I did, but something that happened. Nevertheless, this was a valuable lesson for me: I learned programming on a machine (ZX Spectrum+) w

This is not something I did, but something that happened. Nevertheless, this was a valuable lesson for me: I learned programming on a machine (ZX Spectrum+) which performed syntax checking as I typed. On the other hand, run-time errors often led to crash, making me loose my programs (system had no hard-disk!). Without me realizing then, it taught me how to write bug-free programs (since penalty for bugs used to be so high). Yet, with PC-based code editors, my programs have a lot of syntax errors. I realized this when I met someone who could write five thousand lines of code without compiling even once and yet with less than two syntax errors!! This person was trained by writing programs on paper, and penalty for even syntax errors was set too high. My lesson has been to dislike test-driven development. I like to certify my programs as correct by looking at them. When bugs are found during testing, my brain ends up getting trained automatically not to repeat those bugs without requiring tests to discover those bugs.