What the Heck is Technical Debt?

Hey folks!
I switched everything to dark mode… now opening a white page feels like staring into the sun 🌞😵
Anyway, I’m @nyaomaru, a frontend engineer!

How’s life with AI treating you these days?
I’m doing great, We’re basically best friends at this point.

Ever told yourself:
“Eh, this will do for now…”
“I’ll refactor later…”

We’ve all stacked up those little “just for now” moments, right?

This time, let’s talk about how that debt piles up, and what it really takes to pay it back from a practical, everyday engineering perspective.

Let’s dive in!

 

💸 What is Technical Debt?

Instead of strategic, long-term implementations, we pile up tactical, short-term ones.
That leads to complex, hard-to-maintain code and heavy cognitive load.

The reason it’s called “debt” is because, if left unpaid, the interest (extra burden) keeps growing.

Examples:

• “I’ll just write it this way for now… even though I know it should be done properly. Oh well, just for now!”
• “I don’t fully understand this code, but it works, so I’ll copy-paste and ship it. Just for now!”
• “We’ll skip writing tests to meet the deadline. Just for now!”

Each “just for now” adds up. Short-term gain, long-term pain.

 

🧠 The Reality of Technical Debt

And I get it.

Nobody wants to write debt-ridden code. Nobody’s being lazy on purpose. Sometimes, the pressure is real.

• Startups need to release fast, even at the cost of piling up debt, to survive.
• Big companies need to keep up with competition, deadlines, and market pressure.

You respect your teammates’ work.
Deadlines are real.
Sometimes you just feel like cutting corners.

And you tell yourself: “So it can’t be helped!”

But that’s exactly when the debt starts stacking.
And the question is: who’s going to clean it up later?

(Yes, I just wanted to quote: “If you give up, that’s the end of the game.”)

 

🚨 Why is it a Problem?

So far you might be thinking: “Okay, but so what?”
Here’s why it hurts in practice:

• New features become harder to add
• New members struggle to understand the code
• Debugging and fixing takes longer
• Alerts eat up your time
• Library updates become impossible

In short: maintenance and operations get painful.

🧱 Harder to Add Features

Small-looking changes hide massive refactor requirements.
Keep delaying cleanup, and debt grows exponentially.

🧭 Harder for New Members

Without docs or types, newcomers ask:

• “Why is this any?”
• “What’s the difference between these two functions?”
• “The API response doesn’t match the code — how is this working?”

Onboarding drags out for months, killing productivity.

🐌 Debugging Gets Slower

Outdated code and libraries slow down builds, deployments, and local testing.

Examples:

• Manual verification after each deploy
• Broken or unreliable E2E tests
• Component tests failing unpredictably

Soon, nobody trusts the tests, so everything takes twice as long.

🔔 Endless Alerts

Sentry/Datadog floods you with “Cannot read properties of undefined.”
These require urgent response, so you end up playing whack-a-mole instead of solving root causes.

🧟 Library Updates Become Impossible

Dependencies sprawl out of control.
By the time you need to update, it’s too risky. Conflicts everywhere, too much effort, too much time lost, etc...

That’s how legacy code monsters are born.

☠️ The Endgame

Eventually, bold changes become impossible.
You’re stuck with a giant, fragile ball of mud.

Performance drops. Customers leave for newer products.
Talented engineers quit out of frustration.

But the flip side: if you do act, you can protect your team, your product, and your future.

 

🛠️ So, What Can We Do?

Debt can’t be paid off in one shot.
It’s painful, but the fastest route is steady repayment.

A full rewrite might sound tempting, but it’s usually a gamble.
There’s no silver bullet.

Here are practical steps:

• Do small refactors regularly
• Add tests and documentation
• Make debt visible and track it as a team
• Avoid crushing schedules
• Raise the baseline of “acceptable quality”

🧼 Refactor, Even Small Stuff

Notice an any?
See a function that could be simplified with early returns?
Spot repeated code?

Fix it while you’re there. Small, steady cleanups matter most.

📑 Add Tests & Documentation

Tests provide confidence.
Docs (even a one-line “why” comment) save future devs hours of confusion.

Think of docs as a letter to your future teammates.

📋 Make Debt Visible

If the team doesn’t share an understanding of what counts as “debt,” problems only grow.

Use ESLint rules, coding guidelines, and visible “debt tickets.”
Debt isn’t just your problem — share it as a team.

🕰️ Avoid Over-crunched Schedules

Tight deadlines force sloppy code into production.
That debt lingers for years.

Build in buffer time for small refactors.
That’s how you keep systems sustainable.

📏 Raise the Baseline

Some orgs enforce strict typing, full test coverage, and regular refactors as baseline quality.
Others settle for “as long as it runs.”

Even setting simple rules like:

• Don’t ignore lint errors
• Always write tests
• CI/CD must run lint + tests

…can make a huge difference.

 

🎯 Final Thoughts

Debt will catch up with you.
But steady repayments keep you safe.

Don’t slack off completely — your future self (and your team) will thank you.

Small repayments are the strongest strategy.

 

✍️ Afterword

Thanks for reading!
Honestly, this was me writing a reminder to my past self.

Debt is draining if ignored.
But handled well, it can even become an ally.

If your team can reduce even a little of the “just for now” mindset, that’s a win.

I’ll be writing more about practical debt repayment strategies soon.
Stay tuned!

 

Next Up

Next, I’ll dig into how technical debt actually forms: from a structural standpoint.
We’ll walk through real-world examples (with Vue, but the ideas apply to React and others) and see how “just for now” decisions snowball:

• When Atomic Design collapses under growth and speed
• How “reusable” UI blurs into domain-specific components
• Clear boundaries: ui/ vs features/ and why they matter
• Practical safeguards: naming, directory rules, and CI checks

If you’ve ever found atoms/ slowly absorbing business logic… this one’s for you.

Stay tuned!

 

✂️ That’s the gist!

Technical debt doesn’t appear overnight. It creeps in through small “just this once” compromises.
Left unchecked, structure collapses, classification breaks down, and even “atoms” end up hiding business logic.

If this sounds familiar, don’t worry: you’re not alone.
I’d love to hear how your team has dealt with structural debt — have you tried rules, CI checks, or design overhauls?

Drop your thoughts in the comments, or share your own war stories.
Feedback is always welcome! 🙌