Not every approach works for every problem, still we’re all writing a lot of straightforward code over our careers. I also find longer term projects eventually favor TDD style coding as over time unknown unknowns get filled in.
Your edge case depends on the kind of experimentation you’re doing. I sometimes treat CSS as kind of black magic and just look for the right incantation that happens to work across a bunch of browsers. It’s not efficient, but I’m ok punting because I don’t have the time to become an expert on everything.
On the other hand when looking for an efficient algorithm or optimization I likely to know what kind of results I’m looking for at some stage before creating the relevant code. In such cases tests help clarify what exactly the mysterious code needs to do so in a few hours to weeks later when inspiration hits you haven’t forgotten any relevant details. I might have gone in a wildly different direction, but as long as I consider why each test was made before deleting it the process of drilling down into the details has value.
Your edge case depends on the kind of experimentation you’re doing. I sometimes treat CSS as kind of black magic and just look for the right incantation that happens to work across a bunch of browsers. It’s not efficient, but I’m ok punting because I don’t have the time to become an expert on everything.
On the other hand when looking for an efficient algorithm or optimization I likely to know what kind of results I’m looking for at some stage before creating the relevant code. In such cases tests help clarify what exactly the mysterious code needs to do so in a few hours to weeks later when inspiration hits you haven’t forgotten any relevant details. I might have gone in a wildly different direction, but as long as I consider why each test was made before deleting it the process of drilling down into the details has value.