The hottest Testing Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Technology Topics

Literate Testing

Rethinking Software • 99 implied HN points • 14 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Software Programming Testing Development Documentation
  1. Literate programming is great for keeping your code and documentation together. It helps you write tests in a clear and organized way without needing extra frameworks.
  2. With literate programming, you can easily mock functions and test them directly, even in languages like C that are usually tricky to test. This makes the testing process simpler and more enjoyable.
  3. Placing tests right next to your code helps you keep everything organized and makes writing tests feel less like a chore. You start to see tests as part of your coding process rather than an extra step.

Additional Testing After Refactoring

Software Design: Tidy First? • 950 implied HN points • 20 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Software Development Testing Refactoring Design Patterns Programming
  1. It's important to write more tests after refactoring. This helps improve accuracy and confidence in your code.
  2. When you break down a big piece of code into smaller parts, consider writing smaller tests for those parts, especially if you plan to reuse them.
  3. You might face a dilemma on whether to keep redundant tests after refactoring. It's good to regularly review tests to make sure you have the best approach for checking your code.

You Don't Understand Serum Ferritin

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 2216 implied HN points • 23 May 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Nutrition Iron Testing Research
  1. Ferritin, used to measure iron in blood, holds little iron but plays a crucial role, impacting health at extremes.
  2. Iron balance is key for health - too much ages, affects skin, causes diseases; too little harms brain, hormones, energy. It needs to be just right.
  3. Understanding serum ferritin's purpose is unclear; we don't know how it gets into blood or why. Limitations exist in relying solely on ferritin for iron status.

Mocking OpenAI - Unit testing in the age of LLMs (Part One)

Laszlo’s Newsletter • 21 implied HN points • 23 Feb 25
🕹 Technology AI Software Programming Development Testing
  1. Unit tests are still important even with LLMs. They help ensure your code behaves as expected, even when using unpredictable AI tools.
  2. Mocking is needed to effectively test code that relies on LLMs. Instead of calling the actual AI, you create a 'fake' version that simulates its behavior.
  3. Using libraries like 'respx' can simplify mocking in your tests, and it's essential to handle things like retry logic carefully to keep tests fast.

The Sequence Opinion #547: Best Practices I am Learning While Coding with AI Agents

TheSequence • 63 implied HN points • 22 May 25
🕹 Technology Software AI Engineering Coding Testing
  1. Software engineering is changing rapidly with the use of AI agents. Teams are now using AI to help speed up their work and take on new roles.
  2. AI agents are moving beyond just helping with code completion. They now can generate entire code bases, run tests, and manage pull requests automatically.
  3. Developers are shifting their focus from hands-on coding to more strategic tasks like code review and creating documentation, as AI handles more of the coding work.
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A Simple DIY Home Test for Molybdenum Deficiency

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 1437 implied HN points • 25 Feb 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Nutrition DIY Supplements Detoxification Testing
  1. Molybdenum is crucial for converting toxic sulfite to useful sulfate in the body. Deficiency can lead to various health issues like anxiety, sleep problems, and more.
  2. Lab testing for molybdenum status is often inadequate, with tests focused on ruling out toxicity rather than assessing deficiency.
  3. A simple DIY home test for molybdenum status can be done with minimal equipment, a molybdenum supplement, and a few days of data collection, providing a potentially more practical approach to monitoring levels.

Don't Waste Your Money on the Clearblue Menopause Journey Test

The Vajenda • 2024 implied HN points • 08 Sep 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Menopause Testing Symptoms Hormones Therapy
  1. Menopause can be diagnosed clinically based on age, menstrual status, and symptoms, not through blood or urine tests.
  2. Hormone tests for menopause can be unreliable due to individual variations and do not determine when therapy should be started.
  3. Clearblue Menopause Stage Indicator test may not provide reliable results and consulting with a healthcare professional is still necessary.

Are you delivering what you promised?

System Design Classroom • 279 implied HN points • 07 Jun 24
🕹 Technology Software APIs Systems Testing Performance
  1. Load tests help you see how well your API works with normal users. They show how many users it can support without slowing down.
  2. Stress tests push your API to its limits to find out what happens when it's overloaded. They help you prepare for crashes and see how fast it can recover.
  3. Spike tests check how your API handles sudden increases in traffic. They are important for making sure your service can handle bursts, especially during promotions.

Interpreting the Genova Methylation Panel

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 1298 implied HN points • 12 Dec 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Testing Methylation Genetics Nutrition
  1. Methylation is crucial for many body processes, with signs of imbalance like fatty liver disease, cardiovascular risks, fatigue, and more.
  2. Simply testing homocysteine, folate, and B12 isn't enough to assess methylation levels accurately. More in-depth tests like the Genova Methylation Panel are recommended.
  3. The interpretive section of the Genova Methylation Panel report provides helpful insights, but it may not cover all relevant patterns. Supplementing with genetic testing like StrateGene is also suggested.

Startled?! Try Glycine

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 1557 implied HN points • 28 Oct 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health Nutrition Genetics Testing Supplementation
  1. Being easily startled could indicate an issue, while a normal startle response is crucial for protection and fight-or-flight preparation.
  2. The startle reflex involves visual, auditory, and tactile inputs, with enhanced reflex indicative of certain conditions like PTSD.
  3. Glycine plays a crucial role in inhibiting the motor response of the startle reflex, and low glycine levels can lead to heightened startle responses.

Testing Too Late: A Case Study

QUALITY BOSS • 139 implied HN points • 09 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Software Quality Assurance Project management Development Testing
  1. Testing too late can cause big delays in getting software to users. If QA is behind, it creates confusion and slows down the whole process.
  2. Good communication between development and QA teams is really important. Working in separate sprints can lead to misunderstandings and more difficult bug fixes.
  3. It's essential to define when a task is 'done' to include testing. If something isn't tested, it shouldn't be considered complete, ensuring that quality stays high.

Stop Measuring Glucose Without Measuring Lactate

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 1338 implied HN points • 12 Nov 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Nutrition Metabolism Medical Technology Biochemistry Testing
  1. Measuring glucose alone is not rational; it should also be measured along with lactate and ketones for better understanding of metabolic changes.
  2. BCAAs can impact glucose levels through multiple pathways, highlighting the importance of context in interpreting metabolic markers.
  3. Having a home test for pyruvate could provide more valuable insights into metabolic health, along with glucose and lactate measurements.

The Ultimate Vitamin K2 Resource

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 359 implied HN points • 28 Apr 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Nutrition Supplements Diet Biochemistry Testing
  1. Vitamin K2 has several health benefits, such as improving bone strength, stabilizing blood sugar, enhancing exercise performance, and protecting against cancer.
  2. The different forms of vitamin K2 have unique functions in the body, with MK-7 being effective for bone health and MK-4 playing a role in cancer protection and sexual health.
  3. Getting enough vitamin K2 from food sources like natto, goose liver, cheese, egg yolks, and chicken, or through supplements, is essential for overall health, and it's important to pay attention to form, dosage, and food pairing.

The 3 things Bryan Johnson is missing from his longevity routine.

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 958 implied HN points • 17 Dec 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Longevity Nutrition Genetics Testing
  1. Eating a highly nutritious diet, maintaining a healthy body composition, and systematically testing nutrient status are impactful habits for longevity that we can all adopt.
  2. Key aspects missing from Bryan Johnson's longevity routine are ranked and sorted genetics, functional markers of nutrient status, and thorough screening for energy metabolism impairments.
  3. It may not be necessary for most people to follow an extreme caloric deficit like Johnson's 25%. Opting for a less drastic approach, along with comprehensive nutrient testing, can be more realistic and beneficial.

A COVID Q&A: booster timing; testing; contagiousness; & the Novavax shot

Are You Okay? • 718 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🏥 Health & Wellness COVID-19 Medical Advice Vaccination Testing Well-being
  1. It's crucial for high-risk individuals to consider getting a COVID booster shot 6 months post-infection, but the benefits of additional doses diminish for those at lower risk. Boosters may help briefly reduce infection risks, but lifestyle factors like sleep, nutrition, and exercise are also key for health.
  2. COVID testing should be prioritized for cases where results would alter medical care. For healthy individuals, testing may not be as critical for every symptom, but knowing the specific virus causing symptoms can still influence precautions and decisions.
  3. In households with multiple symptomatic individuals, differing COVID test results can occur; one positive and one negative doesn't necessarily mean the negative individual isn't contagious. Contact a healthcare provider for guidance when unsure.

Why you shouldn't use the Jinfiniti NAD+ test

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 758 implied HN points • 16 Dec 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Supplements Anti-aging Testing Symptoms
  1. Supplementing with NMN to boost NAD+ levels can manipulate test results but not necessarily improve energy levels.
  2. The Jinfiniti NAD+ test is easy to manipulate, making it less useful for assessing actual NAD+ levels.
  3. Optimizing NAD+ levels for anti-aging is important, but the Jinfiniti test is not the best tool for that.

Can B12 and Folate Help Detoxify Oxalate?

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients • 998 implied HN points • 15 Jun 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Nutrition Detoxification Supplementation Testing Metabolism
  1. B12 and folate can help detoxify oxalate by converting it to formate and joining it to tetrahydrofolate in a two-step process.
  2. The rate of the first detoxification step exceeding the rate of the second step can lead to oxalate dumping symptoms.
  3. Nutritionally supporting the two detoxification steps requires biotin, manganese, tetrahydrofolate, B12, and various other nutrients.

Code coverage doesn't matter much

Andrew's Substack • 83 implied HN points • 29 Nov 24
🕹 Technology Software Testing Development Engineering Programming
  1. Code coverage alone doesn't indicate whether tests are good or useful. It's more about the quality of the tests than the quantity.
  2. Not all tests are valuable; some can be complex and fail for reasons that don't matter, which can lead to false confidence in the code.
  3. The aim of testing should be to assure that your code works and to catch errors, instead of just trying to raise a coverage percentage.

sqlmesh test

davidj.substack • 47 implied HN points • 12 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Software Data Engineering Testing Development
  1. Unit tests and data tests are different. Unit tests check if a function works right with set inputs, while data tests check if the data meets certain conditions.
  2. Running tests locally can save costs and speed things up. If you test your code on your own machine, you don’t have to pay for the cloud data warehouse until you’re ready.
  3. Creating external models in sqlmesh can be automated, making it easier to document source tables. You just run a command to generate the necessary files instead of doing it manually.

Why the Turing Test is Not Enough

Insight Axis • 592 implied HN points • 06 Aug 23
🕹 Technology AI Philosophy Science Intelligence Testing
  1. The Turing Test is a thought experiment, not a formal test, and was proposed by Alan Turing to test machine intelligence
  2. Passing the Turing Test does not necessarily indicate true intelligence in AI, as it requires reasoning capabilities and explanatory capacity
  3. Artificial General Intelligence testing should involve multi-dimensional assessments beyond the Turing Test, covering various aspects like linguistic, spatial, and mathematical intelligence

Pytest is All You Need

LLMs for Engineers • 79 implied HN points • 12 Jun 24
🕹 Technology Software Programming AI Testing Development
  1. Pytest is a great tool for evaluating LLM applications, making it easier to set up tests and check their performance. It allows you to program your own evaluation metrics directly in Python without needing complicated configurations.
  2. You can easily collect and analyze data from multiple test runs using Pytest. This helps to understand how consistent the outputs are across different evaluations.
  3. The examples show how to compare different prompts and LLM models, enhancing the flexibility and variety in testing. This allows you to see which setups work best in various scenarios.

Testing a book's code: Overall conclusions

Mostly Python • 524 implied HN points • 22 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Testing Python
  1. When creating a test suite, consider the constraints of your project and think about how to handle testing for non-traditional outputs like images or sound files.
  2. Use pytest to optimize your test suite by utilizing features like parametrization, fixtures, parallel test execution, and custom CLI arguments.
  3. An effective test suite should not only focus on passing tests but also consider failure scenarios, the need for assertions about test setup, and testing across platforms early on.

The worst test suites read like word salad after a C++ compiler had a stroke. The best test suites adopt business language.

🔮 Crafting Tech Teams • 99 implied HN points • 10 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Testing Programming Automation
  1. Write tests in plain language aligned with business objectives for better understanding and communication.
  2. Ensure test names are clear and easily interpreted by humans to provide confidence and insight.
  3. Utilize BDD and Jasmine frameworks for more ergonomic testing and improved behavior analysis.

Shroom Showdown: Ranking Magic Mushrooms by Potency 🍄

Tripsitter • 259 implied HN points • 18 Nov 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Psychedelics Testing
  1. Magic mushrooms vary greatly in potency due to different species and chemical compositions.
  2. Measuring the potency of magic mushrooms is complex due to the presence of multiple active and non-active compounds.
  3. The strongest magic mushroom species include Psilocybe azurescens, Psilocybe semilanceata, and Psilocybe baeocystis, with average total tryptamine concentrations around 1%.

Testing a book's code, part 6: Testing a Django project

Mostly Python • 314 implied HN points • 15 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Programming Software Testing Web Development
  1. Testing a Django project in a book involves creating a copy of the project, setting up a separate virtual environment, and ensuring it functions correctly on new Django versions.
  2. When testing a Django project, focus is usually on internal code, but the priority here is verifying functionality on new Django versions due to its frequent updates.
  3. The post discusses developing a single test function for a Django project named Learning Log, emphasizing the importance of testing project functionality as intended.