Tech Debt
The accumulated cost of every 'we'll fix it later.' Like financial debt, it charges interest — paid in slow features, mystery bugs, and engineers sighing during standup.
Heard in the wild
“We can ship the quick fix, but we're adding tech debt we'll pay down next quarter.”
Tone check: Technical
Legitimate engineering concept. When engineers say the debt is 'unsustainable,' believe them before the outage does.