Having recently gone to a bit of trouble to learn the basics of accounting, I have found it to be quite a useful system. It seems that most commenters here do n

Having recently gone to a bit of trouble to learn the basics of accounting, I have found it to be quite a useful system. It seems that most commenters here do not understand that system, or what "assets" and "liabilities" are in accounting terms. Assets are stuff you have. Liabilities are expenses that you are expected to owe in the future. Debt is a specific kind of liability associated with repaying loans. There are other liabilities, like maintenance costs, that are not debt. So I agree with the post: there can be liabilities associated with code, but code itself is an asset, according to any sane accounting metaphor at least. Of course (as the post also clarifies), the value of the asset depends on how well it serves a purpose, not how much of it there is or whatever. And its value may in some cases be less than the liabilities (maintenance costs etc) that you owe on it. Nevertheless, it is an asset, a thing you have, with some positive value. (Whether to call the liabilities debt in this metaphor depends on whether it makes sense to say you took out a loan. Maybe in some very abstract sense it works, but it is a bit of a stretch imo. I guess its a nice metaphor because it connects to the idea of why you might want to take out a loan, e.g. because it will help you develop more future income than the cost of the loan. Regardless, even if you want to call it "technical debt", the code would be an asset that you have purchased with the borrowed funds. The debt is what you now owe associated with the loan of those funds.)