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The critical distinction between "it's all crap, so just ship whatever already" and what the grandparent wrote is that "technical debt" doesn't reside in easily
by elgenie 9y ago
The critical distinction between "it's all crap, so just ship whatever already" and what the grandparent wrote is that "technical debt" doesn't reside in easily disposable code/components, but rather as may-need-to-be-rectified-but-maybe-not-right-now downsides in what is enormously useful and producing value.
Good developers create code that's prepared for the possibility of being modified repeatedly and becoming foundational; on the other hand, preparing for code/components to be thrown away is a no-op.
- humanrebar 9y ago> ...preparing for code/components to be thrown away is a no-op. You might be agreeing, but I find that the bad code that sticks around is bad code that is hard to get rid of. So in that sense, code that is removable isn't a no-op. It takes some effort, for instance, to keep a clear dividing line between two components so that either may be replaced someday.