[valbaca]

> - If the contractor finds asbestos which was put in by the contractor himself because using asbestos was legal (and cheaper) up to 2 years ago"...

Obviously someone* put that there. It didn't just install itself. Regardless of whether the contractor installed it themselves or not, the reality is it's there now and needs to be removed.

In other words, the analogy still holds regardless of "oh they put it there"

> - If the mechanic that sold me my previously owned car without telling me that servicing would be more expensive in the future...

That is exactly what every car dealership does with their "powertrain" warranties and service packages.

> - If the lawyer who was originally part of the team that helped draft the old law...

AAAAAAAHHHAHAHAHHHAHAAAA New to the legal system?

[Pamar]

It was a way to illustrate the metaphor: I am just as "new to the legal system" as I am at asbestos removal or car repairing... but I have enough experience with software development to understand why "tech debt" is a pretty hard concept to sell to business.

In any case my point is not "there is no tech debt if you created it yourself" it is more about "from the point of view of business tech debt is not something they care about: it is sonething they expect to just be sorted out transparently or that should not even happen". After all, Microsoft never bills them for "tech debt", it just ask them to reboot to update their laptops, no?

I am not saying this is fair, or right. I am just trying to explain why mentioning "tech debt" falls on deaf ears.