Code wants to be simple... I had to give up the idea that I had the perfect vision of the system to which the system had to conform. Instead, I had to accept that I was only the vehicle for the system expressing its own desire for simplicity. My vision could shape initial direction, and my attention to the desires of the code could affect how quickly and how well the system found its desired shape, but the system is riding me much more than I am riding the system.
Kent BeckListening, Testing, Coding, Designing. That's all there is to software. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.
Kent BeckI've known people who have not mastered their tools who are good programmers, but not a tool master who remained a mediocre programmer.
Kent BeckThe system metaphor is a story that everyone--customers, programmers, and managers--can tell about how the system works.
Kent BeckResponsible Development shares many practices with XP but the roots are different. Responsible Development's values are honesty, transparency, accountability and responsibility. These lead me to pairing, test-first, incremental design, continuous integration and so on because they support the values.
Kent Beck