Programming and Technical Debt

Jeff Atwood just wrote a very insightful article on Technical Debt. Go ahead and check it out; it’s a quick read:

Paying Down Your Technical Debt

I am afraid of portions of our codebase, because I know we have a lot of debt there. In fact, right now I’ve got a coworker who’s digging through a piece of our system where I took out a pretty hefty “loan” some months ago. I’m sure it sounds a bit evil, but I’m glad he’s the one paying the interest right now and not me.

As someone with a level of interest in human psychology, it just makes me feel good to realize why I feel the way I do about certain projects. My current project is one where I’m paying down debt. It really feels a lot like that car loan I’m only four payments away from finishing.