Bi-weekly insights on refactoring, LLMs, and software craftsmanship
If you've practiced Test-Driven Development for any length of time, you've probably noticed something interesting: the habits stick around even when you're not writing tests first. There's a way of thinking that emerges from TDD practice that fundamentally changes how you approach programming problems. I call this the TDD Mindset.
Every day, developers complain that AI assistants write terrible code, miss obvious bugs, or spiral into endless loops. Meanwhile, I'm shipping production features faster than ever with the same tools. It took me months to realize that working with AI isn't about better prompts—it's about applying the same collaboration skills I use in pair programming. Today I’d like to share 10 AI-driven development heuristics that I’ve been using over the last few months to build real world production grade software that real users are using today.
I've been pair programming with AI coding agents for over 3 months, and I've noticed something crucial: bots generate code so fast that we often skip a vital step. The refactoring step. When the bot generates code, resist immediately moving on to the next feature. Instead, take a moment to understand what just happened. Read through the code. Question the design decisions. Make it yours.
