Ask HN: Should I employ TDD as a Rails beginner?

I've seen a lot of discussion about why TDD is good, and why some people feel that it's unnecessary in many circumstances. My understanding is that if you are writing a large scale application that will involve thousands of lines of code and will need maintenance for years, then yes, TDD is certainly a good way to go.

My question, though, is will TDD help me as a beginner to Rails when I am simply trying to get the core concepts and write small apps that get more experience under my belt. My intuition is that TDD is extraneous at this point and slows down the instant gratification factor that motivates me to do more and learn quicker. What are your experiences with it and did it abet your learning process?