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Or you could just launch. This technical debt thing has to be the silliest meme ever. I mean yes, presumably since I haven't saved enough for retirement yet, I

by Tichy 15y ago

Or you could just launch. This technical debt thing has to be the silliest meme ever. I mean yes, presumably since I haven't saved enough for retirement yet, I have "retirement debt". As long as you live, you always have some kind of debt because you could use your future time to earn more money (or create cleaner code or whatever). So I suppose you owe yourself your future self. It is debt in the widest sense - but not a useful concept. Obviously you have to do in the future what you can't do today. Technical debt is merely a chimera created by consultants who want to justify their high costs. Another illustration: if I build a tent to spend the night, have I accrued technical debt because I owe myself a proper house? shakes head

icebraining 15y ago
I'm far from an expert, but from what I can tell the debt occurs because you'll have to "pay" it to move on. To use your tent illustration, there's no debt because you don't plan to grow the tent into a proper house - the product is finished. Now, if you actually wanted to build a two story house, but built a tent instead for now because summer's already here, you'll then have to "pay the debt" of dismounting the tent so you can rebuild the house properly.
- Tichy 15y ago
  Sure, but I think you could almost always make the case that whatever you do, you have incurred "technical debt". Otherwise you would make perfect decisions all the time, which is impossible. Another danger with the technical debt thing is that it could lead to expensive premature optimization. For example while you are camping out in your tent, maybe you get a job offer in another city. Or a motorway is about to be built across your lawn. Had you needlessly started with heavy foundations of your house, that effort had been wasted. Who benefits from the TD theory is the builders of the house foundations. Or the consultants who want you to use Java Enterprise Beans instead of Sinatra.

by Tichy 15y ago

icebraining 15y ago

I'm far from an expert, but from what I can tell the debt occurs because you'll have to "pay" it to move on. To use your tent illustration, there's no debt because you don't plan to grow the tent into a proper house - the product is finished. Now, if you actually wanted to build a two story house, but built a tent instead for now because summer's already here, you'll then have to "pay the debt" of dismounting the tent so you can rebuild the house properly.

Tichy 15y ago
Sure, but I think you could almost always make the case that whatever you do, you have incurred "technical debt". Otherwise you would make perfect decisions all the time, which is impossible. Another danger with the technical debt thing is that it could lead to expensive premature optimization. For example while you are camping out in your tent, maybe you get a job offer in another city. Or a motorway is about to be built across your lawn. Had you needlessly started with heavy foundations of your house, that effort had been wasted. Who benefits from the TD theory is the builders of the house foundations. Or the consultants who want you to use Java Enterprise Beans instead of Sinatra.