---
title: "How Do You Know That?"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-do-you-know-that--wodctq335
source_url: https://newsletter.kentbeck.com/p/how-do-you-know-that
type: article
source: "Software Design: Tidy First?"
published: 2026-07-22T14:14:20.600Z
updated: 2026-07-22T14:14:45.832Z
tags: ["general-programming", "testing", "ai-agents", "company-culture"]
reading_time: 7
upvotes: 1
comments: 0
language: en
---

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# How Do You Know That?

**[Software Design: Tidy First?](https://daily.dev/sources/tidyfirst)** · 7 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Kent Beck interviews his daughter Beth Andres-Beck, a software engineer with a background in self-driving car software, theater, and community organizing, now running for Congress. The conversation covers why engineers skip writing tests (and how to change that), the importance of writing testable code before worrying about tests, how to build a testing culture on a team, and the limits of AI agents — which have no drive or accountability of their own. Beth argues that removing humans from decision loops doesn't eliminate responsibility, it just obscures who holds it. She also warns that the real AI risk isn't rogue machines but powerful actors using AI as a personal army that requires no cooperation from others.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://newsletter.kentbeck.com/p/how-do-you-know-that>

## Similar posts on daily.dev

- [Did We Do This to Ourselves?](https://daily.dev/posts/did-we-do-this-to-ourselves--b6fmknulv) · Software Design: Tidy First? · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

---

Tags: [#general-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/general-programming), [#testing](https://daily.dev/tags/testing), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#company-culture](https://daily.dev/tags/company-culture)

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