Nope. I pretty much always find it to be counterproductive.
Most of programming happens in the exploration phase. That's the real problem solving. You're just trying things and seeing if some api gives you what you want or works as you might expect. You have no idea which functions to call or what classes to use, etc.
If you write the tests before you do the exploration, you're saying you know what you're going to find in that exploration.
Nobody knows the future. You can waste a crazy amount of time pretending you do.
Most of programming happens in the exploration phase. That's the real problem solving. You're just trying things and seeing if some api gives you what you want or works as you might expect. You have no idea which functions to call or what classes to use, etc.
If you write the tests before you do the exploration, you're saying you know what you're going to find in that exploration.
Nobody knows the future. You can waste a crazy amount of time pretending you do.