What Kent Beck thinks about innovation

@kent-beck · 38 positions · On ppll ↗

Creator of extreme programming and test-driven development, an original signatory of the Agile Manifesto, and the author of Test-Driven Development: By Example and Tidy First?

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Only Kent Beck on innovation. See everyone on innovation

1 dated position, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Kent Beck has said — not written or endorsed by them.

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1. 1 Jul 2026

   Our readingAlways try your stupid ideas when the experiment is cheap and reversible, because the one that works has no competition.

   Their wordsAlways try your stupid ideas if you can do it cheaply and reversibly. Jumping off a bridge is not a reversible decision. Not talking about that. I'm talking about stuff like this where you're just like, "Here's a stupid idea." 99 times out of a 100 it'll fail. But that one time you won't have any competition cuz nobody else is stupid enough to try this idea.

   ↗How Kent Beck shapes the software engineering industryyoutube.com 10th of 28 in this recording