More often than not, techdebt is added by somebody else (who got rewarded for their product impact) but is your careerdebt since organizations seldom reward clearing techdebt, even at the best of tech companies in SV.
The only time organizations reward clearing techdebt is when the sh*tshow gets so bad it either has visible velocity/infra/product impact that just can't be resolved without a dedicated 1 year effort to clear the crap. I have seen smart engineers pile on to the techdebt as there is no publicity or heroic story around taking a bit of time to clean up the mess on a regular basis. Sadly it is a game of visibility so engineers do what the management chain wants to see and knows is a problem
More often than not, techdebt is added by somebody else (who got rewarded for their product impact) but is your careerdebt since organizations seldom reward clearing techdebt, even at the best of tech companies in SV.
The only time organizations reward clearing techdebt is when the sh*tshow gets so bad it either has visible velocity/infra/product impact that just can't be resolved without a dedicated 1 year effort to clear the crap. I have seen smart engineers pile on to the techdebt as there is no publicity or heroic story around taking a bit of time to clean up the mess on a regular basis. Sadly it is a game of visibility so engineers do what the management chain wants to see and knows is a problem