Software Design: Tidy First?

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Software Design: Tidy First?
Survival, Cash Flow, & Options

Survival, Cash Flow, & Options

Tidy Together chapter

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Kent Beck
Jul 11, 2025
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Software Design: Tidy First?
Survival, Cash Flow, & Options
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Why the most important design decision is sometimes not to design at all

The visualization in the previous chapter—features versus options—captures much of the economic reality of software development. But there's a deeper force at work, one that took me decades to fully appreciate.

Two years ago I read Ergodicity by Luca Dellanna. The core insight hit me…

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