Have you ever tried to build your own PHP test runner? No? Understandable - there are plenty of good reasons why not. We already have PHPUnit, which is battle-tested, widely used, and solves our testing needs perfectly well. So why would anyone spend their time building yet another test runner?

In this talk, we'll dive into exactly that question as we explore the journey of building a test runner from scratch. But this isn't just about testing - it's about the joy of coding, the value of side projects, and why sometimes the "unnecessary" projects teach us the most important lessons.