[RHSeeger]

I disagree pretty strongly with what you've said here. Specifically, part of my job is to make sure my customer is aware of the options and the costs of each of those options. Doing things the faster/less robust way now will have a cost later (re-implementation of some part, etc). And then I do my best to convince them of the approach that I think is best. But only telling them about the option I think is best and _not_ discussing the viable/reasonable options... is definitely not my job.

Implementing a faster solution that will have costs later isn't me choosing to do a rubbish job. It's me helping my client make the best use of the available time/money.

When I hire a company to install a new heating system, they present me with various options; better/worse hardware, single/multiple zones, brand new hot air lines vs rewrapping existing vs using existing unchanged, etc. The person from the company may have a strong opinion on what is best, but listening to them and then making the decision I think is best is expected.

[drewcoo]

When you get a new heating system are any of the options "fake it til you make it?"

Would you pay for any of the options known to be unstable and will have to be replaced in a year?

What about the options that require HVAC staff to carry 24 hour pagers? When's the last time you got a whoopsie email from that manufacturer because of an outage?

[RHSeeger]

I've had to choose between

- Installing a 3 port hot water line that has an extra, unused port for later (when we furnish the basement) and a cheaper, 2 port line. If we chose the 2 port line, it would have cost less now, but incurred additional cost (replacing it) when we furnished the basement.

- Using the old hot air lines (much lower cost, but less efficient), rewrapping the part of the current hot air lines that can be reached (middle cost, middle efficiency), and replacing the lines completely (higher cost, higher efficiency)

- Installing a reserve hot water tank (more expensive, but better able to handle load) or not (less cost, but could result in not enough hot water under load). If we went without the reserve tank and it turned out we were short on hot water on a regular basis, it would cost to add one in (overall, more than just including it at first).

None of those things are choosing between "doing a bad job" and "doing a good job". They are all a choice of how much we want to pay now vs debt we may/will need to pay off later. Ie, a parallel to technical debt. Technical debt doesn't always mean you did a shitty job, it could mean you took certain shortcuts because they accomplished what was needed _today_, but will incur additional cost _tomorrow_.