Writing tests finally clicked and it quietly changed how I write everything

For the longest time tests felt like a chore someone made me do after the 'real' work. Then on a gnarly feature I wrote a test first, just to pin down what 'correct' even meant, and suddenly my functions got smaller, my inputs got clearer, and I stopped being scared to refactor.

Not preaching 100% coverage or strict TDD. Just: writing the test made me design the thing better before I wrote a line of it. Wish someone had framed it as a design tool instead of a compliance task years ago.