zlacker

> But in reality the problem is 100% of the time covered by boxes and anyway I can live a happy life in this house for decades and not be affected. That's 0% tech debt.

what's amazing is that I'm apparently in debt while owing absolutely nothing to anyone.

When you say something like "0% tech debt" seriously, do you ever stop and wonder if maybe you're off-base?

Debt needs to be serviced, if you don't need to service it, it's not debt.

What next, that feature that hasn't been implemented yet is 0% tech debt?

>>PH95Vu+(OP)
It seems like the analogy was unhelpful to you, although it seemed to resonate with a lot of other HNers based on the comment responses and ratings.

The main point to take away is that much of what is colloquially called tech debt does not need to be dealt with on any time horizon, while some does - and being able to distinguish between the two types is key. Were you able to get that much out of this?

And then to make the analogy work for you again - my closet IS a form of tech debt and I insist that it's "0% debt". For example, if I am going to sell the house, it might be the case that having this flawed floor would cause me to get lower offers. So I might chose to deal with this issue at some point, but there's no reason to deal with it any sooner (analogous to not being in the rush to pay off a zero-interest loan)

>>xyzele+61
your closet is unfinished, nothing more, nothing less.

If the porcelain top on my toilet breaks, I'm not in debt because I choose not to replace it.

now, I can run around and tell everyone my toilet is now causing me to have 0% debt because I have a right to say whatever I want, but words have meaning and me saying it doesn't make it so anymore than me claiming the earth is cheese has any effect on whether or not it is. Unless of course by cheese I really mean iron when I say cheese.

>>PH95Vu+L9
I am taking that you've absorbed the larger wisdom of the post and can't resist being dense on the analogy, so I'll call it a success for both of us :)

>>PH95Vu+L9
In your stubborn response, have you considered Jesus?

No no, seriously. You need a counter party to your debt. What about a divine figure?

>>PH95Vu+L9
>If the porcelain top on my toilet breaks, I'm not in debt because I choose not to replace it.

you do know what "tech debt" is, right? In your metaphor, your top may have 0% debt because only you use the bathroom and no one cares, or it has a potentially high debt in that you receive more germs from your bathroom and get more sick, costing you money to buy medicine to keep you not sick. The debt is objective but we live in a world where finding that objective measure is infeasible.

to use your cheese metaphor, it's more like boldly claiming the earth is 35% iron. it's something you can quickly google and is acceptable through decades of study, but it also wouldn't be surprising if better tooling and measurements later on specify "it's actually 33.42% iron". Important for a geologist, splitting hairs for a casual audience.

We are very much a casual audience, and splitting hairs over a metaphor isn't that productive.

>>johnny+Im
what makes this worse is that the original metaphor was meant to try and communicate with business leaders.

There is no business leader on this earth that is going to agree with 0 debt is debt. Or that choosing not to do a thing or pay for a thing implies debt.

And it gets even worse when you take it to its logical conclusion. Choosing not to fix something is apparently debt. So then if you take out a loan to fix it it's also debt?

What the poster meant is it doesn't always harm anything to leave something unfinished or imperfect. Which is true, but then they tried to squeeze "technical debt" into that and went off the rails.

words have meanings for a reason.

>>PH95Vu+RI
okay, well I'm not a linguist. I wouldn't have chosen to make a dedicated word for a self-portrait picture in an official context over something practical like a singular gender-neutral pronoun. I wouldn't have chosen to make a word's extra definition be its own antonym because people can't help but engage in hyperbole. But society shapes language and its collective usage drives what words are "official".

Inaccurate or not, it's understood by people what "tech debt" means and the point of communication is to express ideas to others. Even if it spits on the queen's english, it furfills its goals. I lack the clout and energy to try and oppose and change such ideas (and to be frank, it wouldn't make the top 50 of things I would influence if given those factors).

>>johnny+CJ
no one understands tech debt to mean "0 debt", you're making my point for me.

We have 1 poster abusing it and getting called out for it.

>>xyzele+gb
and now it all makes sense.

>>PH95Vu+xr1
If we're talking about the abuse of language: "one person disagreeing" (in this case, the subject themself) is not the equivalent of "getting called out".

>>johnny+tw1
You can't argue with my original point so instead you're trying to find something wrong with my wording.

I get to define my intent, not you. You cannot call someone out without disagreeing with the behavior or words that you're calling out. So congratulations on stating the obvious I suppose.

>>PH95Vu+QA5
We're well beyond a flame war, and the worst kind. This isn't Reddit. and to be frank I felt like we were constantly talking past each other despite my attempts to align ourselves. Once we have to resort to insults, especially over how words are used, it's clear we both missed the point.

My thoughts are laid out above. I have nothing more to add on the subject. You win, and I apologize for failing to understand your point.