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A comment on How to use the term technical debt to mean anything you want. Parent comment

Re:How to use the term technical debt to mean anything you want by mnd999 on Friday September 15, 2023 @06:21AM (#37520880)
It’s probably better to say it’s a broadly applied term; so broadly that’s its meaning has regressed to ‘something in the codebase I don’t like’.

It’s a shame, because the original meaning of cutting corners for genuine business reasons (time to market etc.) actually makes a lot of sense.

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Re:How to use the term technical debt to mean anything you want by atoav on Sunday September 17, 2023 @04:12AM (#37542698)
Something in the codebase that you don't like can be because of cutting corners for business reasons.

The real question is whether it is actually debt we are talking about. A developers hurt sense of code aesthetics isn't technical debt, but e.g. if code uses an ugly hack it can bite you performance wise, or when something is added or changed. When code is never maintained the libraries used can expose known weaknesses to the world etc.

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