The Pragmatic Engineer

TDD, AI agents and coding with Kent Beck

311 snips
Jun 11, 2025
Kent Beck, the visionary behind Extreme Programming and co-author of the Agile Manifesto, joins the conversation to discuss the intersection of coding and AI tools. He shares why he sees AI as an 'unpredictable genie' that can make programming more enjoyable yet complex. Kent reflects on the evolution of Agile methodologies and his transition away from emotional ties to specific programming languages. With anecdotes from his time at Facebook, he emphasizes the importance of flexibility and iterative learning in modern software development.
Ask episode
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
ANECDOTE

AI Coding as a Genie's Wish

  • Kent Beck compares AI coding tools to a genie that grants wishes imperfectly and unpredictably.
  • The genie sometimes produces surprising but helpful results or frustrating mistakes that require correction.
INSIGHT

Languages Lose Emotional Grip

  • Kent lost emotional attachment to programming languages after many years' experience.
  • He now values practical expression over deep language loyalty or technical details such as memory layouts.
ANECDOTE

TDD Roots and Emotional Impact

  • Kent Beck developed TDD inspired by childhood tape-to-tape programming experiments and a testing framework he created.
  • Writing tests before code transformed his programming anxiety into confidence and certainty.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app