Engineers place too high a value on erasing technical debt. Over time I’m come to agree with the value that management places on erasing technical debt. There is a time and place to fix it. But it is definitely not first. And it is probably not now.
We engineers need to remember that the cleanest, purest, technology and code doesn’t necessarily win. Because winning is about winning with customers and solving their problems.
I forget that my biggest fight is not with the computer, the compiler, or the system. That is merely a secondary fight to get the job done. The real fight is making sure you solve the right problem.
Solving the wrong problem—or no problem—is how you kill your company and product. Fix your tech debt when it becomes a pain point. But that pain is not fatal. For all the tech companies that we have seen fail I cannot remember a single one whose failure story included technical debt.