AI vibe-coded software is not tech debt

As originally coined by Ward Cunningham, the phrase “tech debt” is an analogy for a process for making “incremental growth both feasible and desirable”. It is an intentional strategy allowing a team to accumulate knowledge about the problem being solved while simultaneously shipping value every day. It is a strategy for remaining un-stuck. It is an acknowledgement that tomorrow you will be wiser than today. It is a strategy for applying today’s hard earned learnings to yesterday’s immature code. It is a positive feedback loop, a map for iterative development. It defines a way of working that allows a team and a business to constantly ship and constantly learn. It is a strategy used by professionals to deliver customer value early and often.

Tech debt is not sloppy code.
Tech debt is not hastily written code.
Tech debt is not code you don’t understand.

Tech debt is code that captures your understanding of the problem today, with the full acknowledgement that tomorrow you will know more about the problem domain and will be able to write the code better.

That vide-coded software which left your database exposed publicly, that fails to handle edge cases, that can’t be iterated on because it contains 60% dead code? It is slop. It is not tech debt.

Read the original paper, “The WyCash Portfolio Management System” by Ward Cunningham, and I promise you will gain a new level of understanding for how to steward software in a chaotic and ever-changing world.