Tidy First?
Tidy First? by Kent Beckby Kent Beck
Shares rank 12 of 21 software engineering books by recommenders
Short, practical book on small safe code-tidying steps and the economics of software design, easy for teams to read together.
Short, practical book on small safe code-tidying steps and the economics of software design, easy for teams to read together.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Short and concise, good for book clubs
“It's extremely short and concise, and is perfect for a very light book club within any tech team.”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Kent Beck: Composable Tests” “We read and discussed it at work, and I enjoyed it a lot.”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Kent Beck: Composable Tests”
Other software engineering books people recommend
The four most recommended other software engineering books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Mythical Man-Monthby Frederick P. Brooks | 56 | 3 | 95% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Designing Data-Intensive Applicationsby Martin Kleppmann | 37 | 1 | 97% | 12 | — | Approved |
| A Philosophy of Software Designby John K. Ousterhout | 28 | 1 | 97% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Code Completeby Steve McConnell | 14 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Tidy First?by Kent BeckThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“very pragmatic advice and easy to apply to get your own corner of peace”
“We read and discussed it at work, and I enjoyed it a lot.”
“It's extremely short and concise, and is perfect for a very light book club within any tech team.”
“it explores the slow process that can be summarized by this”
“I've worked through ... Tidy First?”
“This book helped me understand the economics of software through a new light.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.