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Original Meaning of Technical Debt
- Technical debt originally means borrowing time to launch early and learn before paying back with refactoring.
- Interest slows future development until the debt (code issues) is repaid by improving the codebase.
Differences from Financial Debt
- Technical debt differs from financial debt since code can be discarded if deemed worthless, unlike money lent.
- Borrowing time by rushing code can create more work ahead, as fixing messy code may cost more than initial savings.
Paying Technical Debt Is Costly
- Paying off technical debt often requires a big upfront investment, not just gradual cleanup.
- It can take as much or more time than originally rushing the feature to properly fix rushed code.