Some debt is deliberate and reasonable: cut a corner to hit a deadline or test an idea, planning to fix it once it's proven. Other debt is accidental, from rushing or inexperience. Either way, it accrues interest, meaning each new feature gets harder to add.
The healthy approach is to take on debt consciously and pay it down regularly, rather than letting it pile up invisibly. Teams that never refactor eventually reach a point where simple changes take weeks, which is far more expensive than the cleanup would have been.
Updated July 2026