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Another problem with the analogy is that you can meaningfully make a $0.01 payment on your debt. You can pick any arbitrary percentage of your debt and pay it
by commandlinefan 3y ago
Another problem with the analogy is that you can meaningfully make a $0.01 payment on your debt. You can pick any arbitrary percentage of your debt and pay it off right now, if you have the money to do so. Programming tasks are not only more (unpredictably) quantized than that, they're usually Sisyphean: if you do a little but don't finish, you've wasted the time you spent because the boulder rolls back down as soon as you stop pushing.
- Libcat99 3y agoIn fact, doing a little and not finishing might make things worse! You may end up with things like compatability modes, extra options, and the like. But don't worry, you can clean it up later.
- bluGill 3y agoYou can never make a $0.01 payment on any debt. You can try, but interest means your debt will grow faster than your payments! In the case of technical debt, interest is the recurring costs of working in the less than ideal code.
- xedrac 3y agoThat is a good point. Tech debt is often, but not always, harder to pay back in small amounts.