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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_. |