--- title: The Controversial Truth about Tech Debt | daily.dev description: Tech debt is a controversial and often misunderstood concept in the software industry. Despite different definitions, it is agreed upon that tech debt is bad.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-controversial-truth-about-tech-debt-rffllxdi6 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Controversial Truth about Tech Debt | daily.dev og:description: Tech debt is a controversial and often misunderstood concept in the software industry. Despite different definitions, it is agreed upon that tech debt is bad.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-controversial-truth-about-tech-debt-rffllxdi6 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/rFFlLxDi6.png og:image:alt: The Controversial Truth about Tech Debt og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Controversial Truth about Tech Debt **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 5 min read · 67 upvotes · 7 comments ## Summary Tech debt is a controversial and often misunderstood concept in the software industry. Despite different definitions, it is agreed upon that tech debt is bad. However, its cost is hard to measure and its impact on velocity and team performance can vary. It is important to respect previous choices and understand the context before judging tech debt. Just like financial debt, tech debt can be leveraged to achieve goals and unblock projects. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@jsnp** · 3 upvotes > Nice article, i do agree with everything in the post, and yes some definitions of technical debt are just bs, how come a code that was writing by other developer is technical debt? loool also lot of time when rewrite a legacy code that is working great without any issue, just because i's old, the new code create more technical debt than the legacy one. **@eighteyes** · 0 upvotes > I'm of the mind that technical debt is just what you make when you code. I'd rather call it construction debris. **@younussaberi29** · 0 upvotes > Learn a lot about Tech Debt, Also got a new perspective to think over it how Tech Debt can be leveraged by the company **@iseji** · 0 upvotes > I think the key here is how different, dispersed and vague are the definitions if what people understand as tech debt. > > To be aware of the impact of tech debt is what will dictate the care and priority that has to be given to it. > > Nice article to start a conversation about this topic **@isaacmathew** · 0 upvotes > stack debt is everywhere --- Tags: [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#general-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/general-programming) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-controversial-truth-about-tech-debt-rffllxdi6) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Controversial Truth about Tech Debt","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-controversial-truth-about-tech-debt-rffllxdi6","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-controversial-truth-about-tech-debt-rffllxdi6"},"datePublished":"2024-05-15T01:14:03.809Z","dateModified":"2026-03-15T05:11:14.930Z","description":"Tech debt is a controversial and often misunderstood concept in the software industry. Despite different definitions, it is agreed upon that tech debt is bad....","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9421dcb8d36c05bf9a6c740ca7fe1a92?_a=AQAEuiZ","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9421dcb8d36c05bf9a6c740ca7fe1a92?_a=AQAEuiZ","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Medium","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Medium","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/medium","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},"commentCount":7,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-controversial-truth-about-tech-debt-rffllxdi6","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":67},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":7}],"keywords":"architecture,general-programming","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Medium","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Controversial Truth about Tech Debt"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-controversial-truth-about-tech-debt-rffllxdi6","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Nice article, i do agree with everything in the post, and yes some definitions of technical debt are just bs, how come a code that was writing by other developer is technical debt? loool also lot of time when rewrite a legacy code that is working great without any issue, just because i’s old, the new code create more technical debt than the legacy one.","datePublished":"2024-05-15T16:20:05.143Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/rFFlLxDi6#c-N3Yfrt3qr","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeremias Nunez","url":"https://daily.dev/jsnp","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/4008759?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’m of the mind that technical debt is just what you make when you code. I’d rather call it construction debris.","datePublished":"2024-05-30T22:57:29.236Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/rFFlLxDi6#c-y2NSxMEru","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"SC","url":"https://daily.dev/eighteyes","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/AOh14GhCDd_9oqxlmfsoFP5FUqdaR5B-p1D5LLmW0vPBcCw=s100"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Learn a lot about Tech Debt, Also got a new perspective to think over it how Tech Debt can be leveraged by the company","datePublished":"2024-05-24T10:59:52.713Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/rFFlLxDi6#c-gNq0ZfCW4","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Younus Saberi","url":"https://daily.dev/younussaberi29","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKb52OQvfsQ42HTiN5K04BhXaEDmelWPRfun8Q47gzDMHHXFLuBug=s96-c"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I think the key here is how different, dispersed and vague are the definitions if what people understand as tech debt.\nTo be aware of the impact of tech debt is what will dictate the care and priority that has to be given to it.\nNice article to start a conversation about this topic","datePublished":"2024-05-15T09:05:22.271Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/rFFlLxDi6#c-DEcTII29w","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ismael","url":"https://daily.dev/iseji","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--O0TOmw4y--/f_auto/v1715772965/public/noProfile"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"stack debt is everywhere","datePublished":"2024-08-08T04:55:27.196Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/rFFlLxDi6#c-73uS4YJjG","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"isaac mathew","url":"https://daily.dev/isaacmathew","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--DNCnjFeC--/f_auto/v1722619517/avatars/avatar_R5jBakmCtBTvbH4iByjwS"}}]} ```