Archive - Software Design: Tidy First?

Long Vol: What is Volatility?

Some basic assumptions:

Jul 22 • Kent Beck

Long Volatility Development

Jul 15 • Kent Beck

The Beginnings of an Idea: XP is Long Volatility

What does this mean?

Jul 14 • Kent Beck

When Complaints Are Good News

Hint--it's in Explore & Expand

Jul 10 • Kent Beck

How Kent Beck shapes the software engineering industry

Kent Beck reflects on Agile, TDD, and why building trust—not just generating code—will define the future of software engineering in the AI era.

Published on The Pragmatic Engineer • Jul 2

2:27:00

June 2026

The Cost YAGNI Was Never About

If you think YAGNI is about saving effort, cheap generation should retire it. It doesn't. Here's why.

Jun 25 • Kent Beck

Why So Literal?

On the failure of analogy as a communication device

Jun 23 • Kent Beck

Smalltalk Genie

Closing the circle

Jun 21 • Kent Beck

“We’re accumulating code faster than we are accumulating trust.” Sometimes a phrase just hits.

Jun 2 • Kent Beck

May 2026

Genie Lessons from Genie Sessions: Prose as a Programming Language

Kent sits down with one of the founders of OpenProse to talk through their method of prose as a programming language.

May 26 • Kent Beck

54:13

Scope Is The Steering Wheel

This stuck in my craw at the time Patrick published it but I didn’t have the energy to respond.

May 21 • Kent Beck

Hey, N00b, We Didn't Hire You to Complete Tasks

May 15 • Kent Beck

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