the.com/technical debt
the interest you pay forever because shipping today mattered more than surviving tomorrow.
means the accumulated cost of quick fixes and shortcuts in code that make future work slower and harder.
from coined by programmer ward cunningham in 1992, who compared rushed code to financial debt: fine to borrow, but interest accrues until you pay it down.
coined byward cunningham, wiki inventor
not always badcunningham meant it strategically, not as insult
compoundssmall hacks multiply into unfixable systems
invisible costrarely shows up on any balance sheet