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There's a slightly different take on this that was presented last year at RailsConf http://confreaks.com/videos/2448-railsconf2013-of-buyers-and-renters-and-ke

by LargeWu 13y ago

There's a slightly different take on this that was presented last year at RailsConf http://confreaks.com/videos/2448-railsconf2013-of-buyers-and-renters-and-keeping-a-roof-over-our-heads http://confreaks.com/videos/2448-railsconf2013-of-buyers-and... tl;dr: Different kinds of technical debt have different interest rates. Paying loan shark or credit card rates for a long time is bad. Paying mortgage rates is fine. Not having any technical debt means you over payed up-front.

wwweston 13y ago
That's probably about as true as saying "not having any financial debt means you overpayed up-front" -- which is to say, yes, it's possible there's an opportunity cost which means you don't make an economic profit. But it seems to me this isn't always legible, and beyond that it's difficult to think of any situation in which it's more expensive to pay up front if you have the option. A lot of times you don't have the option because your resources at hand are scarce compared to what you need/want to buy, so debt is part of the calculus of allocating your current and (hopefully) future resources. And that's fine. It seems to me that's different from saying "no debt means you overpaid up front." Plus, that sounds like the kind of thing non-technical management might deploy to neutralize discussion without having to engage with the issues at hand.
- aleem 13y ago
  If you over-engineer today and then fail tomorrow you'll lose a lot more out of pocket. If you build an MVP and then fail you'll lose a lot less. In the over-engineering scenario you will essentially have "overpaid upfront" when you do fail. The amount overpaid is relative to what you could have paid.
  - wwweston 13y ago
    This strikes me as being a different problem that needs a different metaphor -- overbuying up front rather than overpaying. Or, as people sometimes say, scope creep.
- mattgreenrocks 13y ago
  It's troubling to hear sentiments like that. Statements like "no debt means you overpaid up front" have a nasty habit of being repeated by people as after-the-fact rationalization for their own failure to design. It is anti-intellectual: it reflects a culture where writing code is valued over understanding the problem. It also devalues our time to non-technical management. Over-design is a legitimate concern. But, if you don't know much design, however, you probably aren't going to fall into this trap. You're more liable to under-design things.
- saraid216 13y ago
  Not having any financial debt means you probably have rich parents. That sounds like overpaying up-front to me.

by LargeWu 13y ago

wwweston 13y ago

That's probably about as true as saying "not having any financial debt means you overpayed up-front" -- which is to say, yes, it's possible there's an opportunity cost which means you don't make an economic profit. But it seems to me this isn't always legible, and beyond that it's difficult to think of any situation in which it's more expensive to pay up front if you have the option. A lot of times you don't have the option because your resources at hand are scarce compared to what you need/want to buy, so debt is part of the calculus of allocating your current and (hopefully) future resources. And that's fine. It seems to me that's different from saying "no debt means you overpaid up front." Plus, that sounds like the kind of thing non-technical management might deploy to neutralize discussion without having to engage with the issues at hand.

aleem 13y ago
If you over-engineer today and then fail tomorrow you'll lose a lot more out of pocket. If you build an MVP and then fail you'll lose a lot less. In the over-engineering scenario you will essentially have "overpaid upfront" when you do fail. The amount overpaid is relative to what you could have paid.
- wwweston 13y ago
  This strikes me as being a different problem that needs a different metaphor -- overbuying up front rather than overpaying. Or, as people sometimes say, scope creep.
mattgreenrocks 13y ago
It's troubling to hear sentiments like that. Statements like "no debt means you overpaid up front" have a nasty habit of being repeated by people as after-the-fact rationalization for their own failure to design. It is anti-intellectual: it reflects a culture where writing code is valued over understanding the problem. It also devalues our time to non-technical management. Over-design is a legitimate concern. But, if you don't know much design, however, you probably aren't going to fall into this trap. You're more liable to under-design things.
saraid216 13y ago
Not having any financial debt means you probably have rich parents. That sounds like overpaying up-front to me.