#technical-debt

#technical-debt

Every startup founder dreams of control. Building a sleek payment system in-house feels bold, innovative and even empowering. After all, Stripe began as a small project - why not follow the same path? The idea of owning every detail of the payment experience can be intoxicating. But behind that dream lies a reality few anticipate: endless complexity, hidden expenses and a dangerous distraction from the core product.

Slower systems aren't always a hardware issue. In fact, performance problems often stem from how your systems have evolved - layer by layer, fix by fix. Over time, even the best platforms become tangled in complexity, weighed down by technical debt, and held back by outdated design. Let's break down the key culprits behind why your IT infrastructure feels heavier each year.

Agentic AI programming is what happens when coding assistants stop acting like autocomplete and start collaborating on real work. In this episode, we cut through the hype and incentives to define "agentic," then get hands-on with how tools like Cursor, Claude Code, and LangChain actually behave inside an established codebase. Our guest, Matt Makai, now VP of Developer Relations at DigitalOcean, creator of Full Stack Python and Plushcap, shares hard-won tactics.

Every CEO knows the feeling of promised features taking months longer than expected, simple changes breaking unrelated systems, and top engineers fighting fires more than they build the future. Welcome to technical debt: the detritus of yesterday's innovation that increasingly blocks progress today. The crucial reality is that tech debt isn't an "IT issue"-it's a business strategy problem that directly impacts your bottom line, competitive positioning, and organizational resilience.

The definition of 'tech debt' is being hijacked by analysts and vendors, transforming its meaning from coding shortcuts to the struggles of dealing with legacy systems.

Many respondents noted there is a lack of clear quality metrics provided by the organization, highlighting a recurring theme of misalignment on what defines quality.

The term 'vibe coding' suggests a new approach where speed and creativity overshadow essential coding principles, highlighting concerns over long-term software maintainability.