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PodcastThe Stack Overflow PodcastSeptember 25, 2026

Professional skepticism is a dev’s best skill

QA-style skepticism and test-driven discipline, not new tools, are what prevent agentic coding from repeating pre-Docker-era production failures.

  • QA as a skill, not a role: David Burns argues professional skepticism—verifying rather than trusting happy-path outputs—is becoming essential for all engineers, not just testers.
  • Two-commit TDD for agents: Burns has an agent write tests first, then a second commit to pass them; test changes require human approval since AI assumptions in code often go unreviewed.

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