Debt may not be an overwhelming problem in itself until misfortune creates issues which would not be overwhelming otherwise, usually in financial terms. A smal

Debt may not be an overwhelming problem in itself until misfortune creates issues which would not be overwhelming otherwise, usually in financial terms. A small technical upset or failure can aggravate larger technical debt, not unlike a small financial upset or failure can amplify the threat of outstanding obligations. Only the latter is usually visible and numerically measurable in any way. In its ultimate form, technical debt is the liability that can cause bankruptcy of a technical company without ever showing up on the bottom line. To put things on a level playing field and really bring it home, I agree with comparing your own solution after a rushed 2 days versus a full two-week completion of optimized code addressing the same issue. >today's corporate software dev culture Doesn't sound like it's good enough for NASA, but then again NASA doesn't have to worry about bankruptcy. The shortest time possible to reach the moon was not accomplished using software taking the shortest amount of time to write & test to no end. Google's tops in search now because of code they started on 20 years ago without ever giving up. Not on what they accomplished last year, and especially not a 2-day sprint whether it has been deployed or not. Technical debt does not have to reach its ultimate bankrupt conclusion for it to seriously dim your overall prospects.