I agree, and I love the metaphor too, but you have to admit that something about the metaphor isn’t reaching peoples’ brains the way a good metaphor does.
A good litmus test here is to ask someone, “what if I told you that technical debt was originally a good thing?”... Like “Yes! Let’s go and get some technical debt, it will be great!” And so, can you understand why it might have started out that way?
People who really get the metaphor, can understand why it was originally a good thing to be desired. Because debt is a useful tool for the same reason, and if you can pursue what “being unable to take on technical debt” looks like, you can understand that it was a reaction to waterfall-style approaches.
But a solid 80-90% of people in tech don't understand how it could possibly be positive... “tech debt” is just a shorthand for the stuff that is causing development to go slower than you would have liked it to go.
The big difference between technical debt and actual debt in a money sense is that real debt is taken on consciously with an agreement betweenn debtor and lender. Because of this money debt can be worked into the planning and the risk can be calculated at the time the loan is initiated. Circumstances can change over time, but there is a bargain between the debtor and the lender. There are things like interest rates and collateral that are agreed upon when the debt is incurred.
Technical debt is by definition created to save time, so there is rarely an understanding of the risk that comes with the debt until the debt must be repaid. This means that the eventual payback can range from inconsequential to disasterous. The point is that the debtor won't know until it comes time to pay the debt back. Technical debt is often incurred in lieu of actual planning, not because a debtor is consciously and rationally weighing current reward against a future risk.
The predecessor or old self did dumb stuff because of being pressured to deliver something quickly and had to cut corners. I don't see how he'd be offended that now it's time to go back and do it properly.
> People who really get the metaphor, can understand why it was originally a good thing to be desired. Because debt is a useful tool for the same reason
In that case, it is a very apt metaphor because most people naturally see debt as a bad thing. But with some nuanced thinking and deeper investigation you recognise that it can be useful sometimes.
I think they weren't saying that it's not an apt metaphor, but that it's not a good one, because now you first need to explain to people why regular debt is not necessarily bad, before being able to move on to your actual point that technical debt is also not necessarily bad.
A good litmus test here is to ask someone, “what if I told you that technical debt was originally a good thing?”... Like “Yes! Let’s go and get some technical debt, it will be great!” And so, can you understand why it might have started out that way?
People who really get the metaphor, can understand why it was originally a good thing to be desired. Because debt is a useful tool for the same reason, and if you can pursue what “being unable to take on technical debt” looks like, you can understand that it was a reaction to waterfall-style approaches.
But a solid 80-90% of people in tech don't understand how it could possibly be positive... “tech debt” is just a shorthand for the stuff that is causing development to go slower than you would have liked it to go.