this is the important part of the sentence: he's actively admitting that TDD may not be the best thing, but it's the best thing he knows, but if you have something else that is at least "as effective as TDD", than go ahead and and to the other thing. He just means that, paraphrasing, `you should feel bad if you are not being as effective as possible, and TDD is the only way I know of of being so effective`.
"Uncle Bob" seems like a pretty open minded guy, but his communicative style make lots of people really misunderstand what he says. DHH otoh is very good at sending his message across to "high energy" type of people that want a "strong punch" and don't have time to carefully read every word of an argument and digest its meaning... this is probably your "type", so this is why you like DHH's message more, but both are smart guys and both of their arguments are valid in different contexts :)
(and generally speaking, I think "Uncle Bob"'s advice is more valuable to mediocre programmers than DHH's, as it imposes a mindset that limits "the damage one can do" :) )
this is the important part of the sentence: he's actively admitting that TDD may not be the best thing, but it's the best thing he knows, but if you have something else that is at least "as effective as TDD", than go ahead and and to the other thing. He just means that, paraphrasing, `you should feel bad if you are not being as effective as possible, and TDD is the only way I know of of being so effective`.
"Uncle Bob" seems like a pretty open minded guy, but his communicative style make lots of people really misunderstand what he says. DHH otoh is very good at sending his message across to "high energy" type of people that want a "strong punch" and don't have time to carefully read every word of an argument and digest its meaning... this is probably your "type", so this is why you like DHH's message more, but both are smart guys and both of their arguments are valid in different contexts :)
(and generally speaking, I think "Uncle Bob"'s advice is more valuable to mediocre programmers than DHH's, as it imposes a mindset that limits "the damage one can do" :) )