Explore a thought-provoking talk from PyCon US that challenges the conventional use of mocks in testing. Discover why classic testing approaches often fall short in real-world scenarios and learn alternative strategies for designing more maintainable and effective tests. Delve into patterns like "Functional Core, Imperative Shell" and Dependency Injection, and understand how hand-rolled fakes can serve as a superior alternative to mocking and patching. Gain insights on improving code design, creating more robust test suites, and achieving a healthy test pyramid. Through practical examples and a journey from sync APIs to building fake APIs, acquire valuable techniques to enhance your testing practices and overall code quality.