We need to talk about technical debt →

On what differentiates technical debt from a bad code:

The thing that separates technical debt from the rest of the hacky code in our project is the fact that technical debt, by definition, is something that we knowingly and strategically entered into. Debt doesn’t happen by accident: debt happens when we choose to gain something otherwise-unattainable immediately in return for paying it back (with interest) later on.

On bad code:

Where technical debt is knowing that there’s a better way, but the quicker way makes more sense right now, bad code is not caring if there’s a better way at all. […] Technical debt often represents ability in judgement, whereas bad code often represents a gap in skills.