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I do a lot of these things. It's called taking in technical debt. Debt has it's place in this world, especially in startups.
by acgourley 14y ago
I do a lot of these things. It's called taking in technical debt. Debt has it's place in this world, especially in startups.
- ryanbrunner 14y agoI sort of agree, but the hairs on the back of my neck stand up with that specific phrasing. "Taking on technical debt" implies that doing these things is always a conscious effort taken in the interest of expediency. In a lot of cases, stuff like this is really just part of the process of learning to be a better coder, and that's not a process that ever really ends. The attitude that poorly done code must either be intentional or is a sign of a bad coder can be toxic in teams, and I think it's important to realize that even good coders make mistakes, and what seemed like a good idea at the time can show it's warts months from now when the shortcomings of a solution is obvious.
- acgourley 14y agoIt's delicate - as you fear you could go too far with the line of thinking. So far I haven't regretted my choices, I move fast and I pick patterns that fail gracefully. I know the debt is compounding, and I feel like I know when it's appropriate to pay it back. I'm paying it back now, actually, as I finalize our public SDK. I don't regret leaving it until now, I would have had unit tests covering stuff we didn't really need for the business.