Not sure what Rich Hickey thinks, but my impression is he believes that example-based testing (http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simulation-Testing) is superior to other kinds of testing. Also, he promotes design rather than only coding (typing); perhaps when you did less TDD, you didn't invest that time to do more design? (Maybe TDD was a time to do design?)

Anyway, you don't have to believe what he believes; for example Brian Marick's Midje. (https://github.com/marick/Midje) Whatever makes you the best Clojure programmer is right for you.