Ladd reframes TDD beyond the 'write a test, make it pass, refactor' mechanics: TDD's real object is improving the quality of designs and implementations by validating every step through the lens of test automation. It is a process and philosophy wrapped into a methodology — agreeing to embark on a journey where the finer-grained detail emerges from the work itself. Used inside-out (innermost core classes first, then downstream classes), with git checkpoints and interactive rebasing to correct deep mistakes and replay each class's tests forward. Rodzik's earlier example shows that naive red-green TDD with conditional tests can still yield green-but-wrong suites, reinforcing that the mechanics alone are not TDD.