The 4 step process outlined at the start of this article really reminds me of Deutsch's The Beginning of Infinity:
> The real source of our theories is conjecture, and the real source of our knowledge is conjecture alternating with criticism.
(This is rephrased Karl Popper, and Popper cites an intellectual lineage beginning somewhere around Parmenides.)
I see writing tests as a criticism of the code you wrote, which itself was a conjecture. Both are attempting to approach an explanation in your mind, some platonic idea that you think you are putting on paper. The code is an attempt to do so, the test is criticism from a different direction that you have done so.
> The real source of our theories is conjecture, and the real source of our knowledge is conjecture alternating with criticism.
(This is rephrased Karl Popper, and Popper cites an intellectual lineage beginning somewhere around Parmenides.)
I see writing tests as a criticism of the code you wrote, which itself was a conjecture. Both are attempting to approach an explanation in your mind, some platonic idea that you think you are putting on paper. The code is an attempt to do so, the test is criticism from a different direction that you have done so.