Technical debt is a tool

Early in my career, I treated technical debt like a disease. Something to avoid. Something shameful.

The debt never went away, though. I just got better at using it.

A quote from Dormain Drewitz changed how I think about this: "All code is technical debt; we're paying different interest rates on it. Debt powers the economy and it powers your business. None of this is inherently good or bad. It's a tool."

That reframing helped. Financial debt isn't evil. You take out a mortgage to buy a house you couldn't afford otherwise. You take on technical debt to ship something before you've figured out the perfect architecture. Both can be smart moves if you know what you're doing.

The question isn't whether you have debt. It's whether you're managing it or letting it manage you. Are you taking on debt deliberately, with a plan to pay it down? Or are you just accumulating it without noticing until the interest payments crush you?

When I look at code now, I see decisions. Each one has an interest rate. Some code is cheap to carry. Some is expensive. A good developer knows which is which.