[agent281]

This is my current struggle. I've enjoyed mentoring in the past, but right now I'm getting very exasperated feedback. It's hard because I don't have control of the environment to alleviate the deadline pressure, but I still want to help people learn. The end result seems to be a pile of tech debt for now. C'est la vie.

[jiggawatts]

Something I observed very early on in my career is that bugs will have to be fixed no matter what. You can put them on the todo list and fix them later, or fix them right now. Either way, you're going to have to do the task.

It's like a conservation rule in physics, for every bug found, a bug fix must eventually be implemented. Bug in, fix out.

But... if you leave a bug lingering, then it can cause test failures for unrelated code development. It can trip up other developers. It can cause false positives until resolved.

So the only logical conclusion is that all bugs must be fixed ASAP, otherwise they have a "multiplier" factor dependent on how long they're allowed to persist. If left unchecked, this can blow out exponentially, until you're unable to efficiently fix bugs because you're tripping over thousands of other unfixed bugs while doing so.

You would think this kind of thing is logical, but no-one ever believes me. There's just slow blinking and then a slower repeat of the same old mantra: "We'll fix it... later?"

[agent281]

I agree. I think a zero defect mentality keeps things moving along smoothly. Unfortunately, people think I'm just being a perfectionist. I'm just trying to not trip on the treadmill. Every bug is another stumbling block.