A humorous yet cautionary tale about the false economy of postponing tests in fast-moving startups. We'll unpack why "we'll test when things slow down" is as effective as planning to floss only on special occasions. Through real-world horror stories and practical solutions, you'll learn how to build testing into your workflow from the beginning, saving your future self from 3 AM production emergencies. Essential for engineering teams who want to move fast without breaking everything—including their will to live.

Are tests a chore, or do they help us move faster? Let’s examine what makes testing great and not so great. We’ll focus on test strategies that help us code with confidence and clarity, and where they can cost us time and energy. The secret to good testing lies in how it shapes our developer experience. Do our tests give us useful feedback in a timely manner? How quickly can we tell what is wrong when a test suite fails? Do they document our features and explain our past decisions? We’ll answer these questions with better tests that give us joy.

Writing efficient unit tests is essential for critical software components. But how do we ensure that our tests are thorough enough to cover a huge variety of typical inputs and most edge cases? I'll introduce you to the concept of property-based testing and share how we benefited from using it at Grammarly.

Do you often find yourself trapped in the labyrinth of code, desperately hoping you won't trigger an apocalypse with a misplaced semicolon?
Well, fear not! In this uproarious talk, we're taking a hilarious detour from the mundane world of web development to explore how injecting a healthy dose of creativity can turn your codebase into a masterpiece. And don't worry – we promise to leave the internet intact! Prepare to unlock the secret to web development success: humor! We'll explore how adding whimsical comments to your code can turn error messages into a stand-up comedy routine.