Decompiled @decompiled@qoto.org

Musings on Tech Debt Tech debt likens less than ideal technical implementations to financial debt. The argument goes that failing to restructure code in light of new knowledge is like leaving a balance on a credit card. Teams that neglect restructuring their code will have reduced velocity, and eventually most work will be spent coping with cruft instead of delivering new features. Experienced developers have likely worked on a project where a seemingly simple task, ends up taking much longer than it should.

Imagine if each email client could only send messages to people using the same client. I might like gmail, but if my boss liked outlook I’d have to use that. The fragmented system would cause email to have fraction of the value. If that seems hard to imagine, consider how many instant messaging platforms there are. None of these platforms exchange messages between themselves, despite large investments. The value of communication technology lies in network effects, so it seems strange that this continues to be the case.