[samhw]

Yeah, certainly the tech debt code should be thrown away. I think this is hard to discuss without a concrete example in mind, though. Or rather without both having the same concrete example in mind.

I get the sense that everyone here is imagining their own - very different - concrete example of tech debt, and talking entirely at cross purposes as a result.

[EugeneOZ]

If the foundation, base of the project is quickly created just for MVP - it should be rewritten. If just some of the small parts were created without care - then throwing them away is not a problem.

[samhw]

I really need to emphasise, 'tech debt' does not imply 'without care'. Just to link to the last comment where I emphasised this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30286955

This is why I say it's fruitless to discuss this without making clear what concrete examples we're imagining when we say 'tech debt'. I'm almost certain that you and I are not thinking of remotely the same thing. 'Tech debt' is very different from plain old shitty code.