Software Design: Tidy First?

Take My Toil, Leave Me My Struggle

Imagine RoboGym.

Oct 20 • Kent Beck

67

7

4

Decompose Run-On Tests

Run-On Tests

Oct 13 • Kent Beck

34

5

1

Tools Aren’t Here to Make Us Feel Good

But feeling bad is a sign something is wrong

Oct 7 • Kent Beck

18

7

1

September 2026

Mathematicians, Here’s a Way To Think About Your Existential Crisis

Two years ago programmers were all like, “What I do is code.

Sep 29 • Kent Beck

52

4

2

Formal Methods Pay Off

Finally!

Sep 17 • Kent Beck

13

4

Reject Change, Sometimes

Volatility, Shannon's Demon, & Free Money

Sep 2 • Kent Beck

45

7

2

August 2026

Baking a Model

I remember walking to the bus from high school, staring at a Motorola 6800 instruction set manual.

Aug 14 • Kent Beck

57

3

2

Busy is Short Volatility

The brutal tyranny of the Kingman Formula

Aug 13 • Kent Beck

14

3

Speculative Short Volatility & Neglectful Short Volatility

Timing is one distinguishing feature of the Tidy First worldview.

Aug 5 • Kent Beck

11

July 2026

Canon 3X: Explore/Expand/Extract

I’ve started a series of Canon articles where I explain my ideas as plainly & unambiguously as possible—no analogies, no persuasion, just the facts.

Jul 30 • Kent Beck

50

3

6

Long Vol: What is Volatility?

Some basic assumptions:

Jul 22 • Kent Beck

15

6

Long Volatility Development

Outline

Jul 15 • Kent Beck

5

2