Financial debt is okay if it gives you an important advantage now, and you can pay it off later, and you remember to actually do it. If you get into debt so th

Financial debt is okay if it gives you an important advantage now, and you can pay it off later, and you remember to actually do it. If you get into debt so that you can have a nice new TV quickly, and you forget to pay it off, so it keeps increasing, and you only pay attention to it when the debt collectors start calling you... that is a problem. In my experience, most software debt resembles the latter case. The goal is to meet a deadline sooner, and there is absolutely no intention of spending resources to fix it later, unless the customers start making too many tickets. When a manager says "later" or "low priority", it usually means "never, unless we absolutely have to". Technical debt is always a "low priority" that will be addressed "later". Yes, there are situations when meeting a specific deadline is critical, and it is a rational decision to cut some corners and fix things later. The problem is that after the deadline is met, the "fix things later" part is usually forgotten. A new deadline is set, and new corners need to be cut, etc.