[mattvanhorn]

I think that Red-Green-Refactor is as much about learning to habitually look for and recognize the refactoring opportunities as it is about being meticulous in reacting to those opportunities.

It's true that nothing forces your to refactor - but I think wanting that is a symptom of treating TDD as a kind of recipe-based prescriptive approach. It is not a reflection of the nature of TDD as a practice or habit.

It's a subtle difference, but important:

A recipe says "do step 3 or your end result will be bad"

A practice says "do step 3 so you get better at doing step 3"