Expedient design choices accrue interest, and unpaid interest eventually consumes the capacity to change.
Cunningham's 1992 metaphor. Its useful precision is the interest: the cost is not the shortcut itself but the compounding drag on every subsequent change, which is what makes it debt.
In practice
- A feature shipped in three days rather than three weeks costs an extra hour on every change for the next four years.
- A team that takes a deliberate shortcut and records it can repay it; one that takes it silently pays interest without knowing the principal.
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