⚖️ Technical debt compounds with you doing nothing

Technical debt is like any other kind of debt -- it accrues when nothing is done. This is perhaps the most insidious aspect of debt.

How does technical debt work? Mainly that software (and technology in general) moves on (especially OSS), and we do not keep up.

"It works, why do we need to update? That just introduces risk."

But the longer we put this off, it becomes exponentially harder to ever catch up -- just like compound interest on financial debt never receiving payments.

The other aspect of doing nothing is that infrastructure rots -- the tools, automation, testing, and know-how that even allow making changes and improve things. So when the gap is huge and there is no infrastructure (way to close the gap), it is nearly impossible, so we declare bankruptcy and start over.

There is another path: keep up-to-date. This forces the infrastructure to stay fresh. Iterations expose areas that can be automated and improved. Investing in YOUR platform compounds benefits over time.