[ergothus]

> Which codebase will be easier to adapt - the debty one or the zero-avoidable-debt one?

I feel this is a bit of strawman, though that may not be your intent.

As I mentioned in the above comment, wanting to avoid hurting your long term for the short term is fine and admirable. However, I think the distinction between "unavoidable" and "avoidable" debt is somewhat facile and unrealistic. It's a continuum, with points scattered throughout the center. Is this decision the best one? That is debatable, and should be debated, but the result won't be "yes debt" or "no debt".

I also said that if someone is shooting for "Zero debt" they should talk with their devs and make sure everyone is using words to mean the same thing. I continue to stand by that, because however clean and rational your personal definition may be, it's worthless if that's not the meaning anyone else is using.

[vemv]

Point taken.

At the same time, I'd note that anything can be debated ad nauseam, so nearly everything can be considered subjective.

So indeed I can't aim to 0.00000 tech debt, nor identify "avoidable" tech debt with 100% accuracy.

But I _can_ follow certain practices and have a given team follow them. Those practices being quite objective, benefitial, and superior to the status quo of the industry.