On technical debt

March 15, 2021

#28 – March 15, 2021

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The term “technical debt” is a useful one. Unfortunately, as with anything useful, it is overused and used sloppily. It’s also sometimes misused to disparage a historical decision somebody disagrees with. But more than that, I think it is broadly misinterpreted. The term is intended to help justify work that has no immediate customer benefit, but rather is expected to help us execute faster. The business analysis on the value of a new feature customers are clamoring for is easier to quantify than the value of a system re-architecture. It can be hard to justify investment in cleaning up the code.

Attracting the right talent is one of the biggest challenges tech companies face nowadays, but it is only one side of the coin. Keeping this talent is equally important and a lot of companies fail in this process.

The problem with meetings is that they are often misused and can ruin productivity, in particular amongst software engineers where long, uninterrupted stretches of time are critical. Unnecessary and inefficient meetings are common, and it is critical to understand how to wield this tool effectively.

Every level’s expectations include the expectations from levels below it. We expect people to meet about 80% of the expectations per level, as opposed to all of them, because people are different.

A cohesive culture imposes constraints on our decisions. Therefore, it comes with a cost that we must pay in order to maintain it. One of those costs is not hiring candidates who don’t share our values and don’t exhibit the behaviors that we view as essential for our success.

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