[4ndrewl]

Isn't that same resistance the thing that enables you to float in the first place though? I don't really swim so don't understand the analogy I'm afraid.

The debt analogy works because you're taking a shortcut that allows you to eg get to market sooner (Vs perhaps not at all).

[loumf]

For some debt, yes, it starts with a shortcut. I want to talk about other kinds of debt-like problems that have nothing to do with that. Where you did everything right, but the world just changed.

[conartist6]

I think most engineers know that doing everything right is reserved for toy problems. In engineering you're always making choices about what problems to deal with today and which to leave for tomorrow. Code is always some kind of simplification of reality: reality is just too damn complicated. The rules of the game of tech debt are the same as the rules of thermodynamics and the game of being alive: you can't win, you can't break even, and you can't even stop playing the game.