[hn30000]

Sometimes things are messy in the early days. Are things getting out of control at this particular company? Hard to say. If you want to push for change be polite and persistent and focus on one or two key changes to the workflow. Not everything at once. Or if you can’t stand working this way you could jump to a more mature startup.

[throwaway_bags]

> can’t stand working this way

Yes what drives me crazy is not that we're racking up tech debt (which is appropriate in some contexts), but rather that it seems I'm the only one with that healthy sense of guilt/shame, that foresight that our shortcuts now will pay off in headaches later. There's this unblinking straightfaced attitude of "why would we do it any other way?"

[britch]

Is it possible they've never seen it the other way?

I'm imagining someone who leaves messy school projects to join a chaotic startup to join a chaotic startup...

Do people on the team have experience maintaining things long term or working with legacy systems?

[throwaway_bags]

> experience maintaining

Yes, I think this could be the crux: maintenance oriented vs prototype oriented practices

[kolinko]

Is it tech debt or a lack of architecture?

Badly designed architecture, or one designed too early, can be tech debt as well.