The first 3 of those act like debt, forcing you to spend more of something in the future if it's not changed. The last one is only a debt if you consider the e

The first 3 of those act like debt, forcing you to spend more of something in the future if it's not changed. The last one is only a debt if you consider the emotional cost, which I think is debatable. Yes, some people use 'tech debt' improperly and aren't actually describing something that acts like a dead. Poorly structured code means the coders need to spend more time implementing new features than they would if it were just correct, for example, so that's actually 'technical debt'. Not taking care of the business's needs isn't technical debt (faster onboarding, etc), it's just a problem.