Test Driven Thinking

Adam Zerner

Programmers do something called Test Driven Development. Basically, they write tests that say "I expect my code to do this", then write more code, and if the subsequent code they write breaks a test they wrote, they'll be notified.

Wouldn't it be cool if there was Test Driven Thinking?

Write tests: "I expect that this is true."
Think: "I claim that A is true. I claim that B is true."
If A or B causes any of your tests to fail, you'd be notified.

I don't know where to run with this though. Maybe someone else will be able to take this idea further. My thoughts:

It'd be awesome if you could apply TDT and be notified when your tests fail, but this seems very difficult to implement.
I'm not sure what a lesser but still useful version would look like.
Maybe this idea could serve as some sort of intuition pump for intellectual hygiene ("What do you think you know, and why do you think you know it?"). Ie. having understood the idea of TDT, maybe it'd motivate/help people apply intellectual hygiene. Which is sort of like a manual version of TDT, where you're the one constantly running the tests.

Wouldn't it be cool if there was Test Driven Thinking?

Write tests: "I expect that this is true."
Think: "I claim that A is true. I claim that B is true."
If A or B causes any of your tests to fail, you'd be notified.

I don't know where to run with this though. Maybe someone else will be able to take this idea further. My thoughts:

It'd be awesome if you could apply TDT and be notified when your tests fail, but this seems very difficult to implement.
I'm not sure what a lesser but still useful version would look like.
Maybe this idea could serve as some sort of intuition pump for intellectual hygiene ("What do you think you know, and why do you think you know it?"). Ie. having understood the idea of TDT, maybe it'd motivate/help people apply intellectual hygiene. Which is sort of like a manual version of TDT, where you're the one constantly running the tests.

in order to qualify as a useful belief to hold, it must be testable.

Atheism..?

And if it's testable, you should test it.

I believe that jumping off tall buildings without a parachute is a bad idea. Should I test it?

Atheism can be legitimately viewed as a lack of belief, if you properly hedge your claims about whether or not it's possible for gods or other ethereal beings to exist.

Also testing a belief doesn't necessarily mean testing it in full. You've probably tested your belief in the lethality of long drops partially by falling out of trees as a child (or at least, I did).

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Test Driven Thinking

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