Seconded. The point is not that bad code is a necessary evil (it's really not), but that they are going to end up with it if they insist on doing things a certa

Seconded. The point is not that bad code is a necessary evil (it's really not), but that they are going to end up with it if they insist on doing things a certain way. Another good one is, "Well, I can build you a 20,000-foot fire-breathing chicken made of balsamwood, if that's what you want, or if you just want me to parse a CSV file, I can do that too." As a developer who has to hear the "tech debt" thing all the time from my co-workers, I really hate that concept. Metaphorically or otherwise, I don't like being in the position of a bank demanding high interest payments from a poor sap who didn't realize what he was getting into. That's not how I view myself in relation to my employers and clients.