Technical Debt

Hacks are not always "bad". Many times they can get you out the door and ship a product that reworking things to be the "right" way would kill the project. Building software is like building a business - somtimes you have have to take on a little debt to get a huge win in the short term at the expense of paying thigns back off later.

Basically, what you want to do is not just take into account how much time it will save you in the short term VS how much it will cost you in the long term, but also how much money/how many features/how many more clients will I win by doing this hack and shipping early than if I wait and let my competitor ship first.

Sometimes shipping first is best, sometimes shipping later with a better product is best, but it all depends on a lot of factors that only you can answer.

By no means am I advocating hacks in all situations. Just like any debt, it must be paid back, and intrest varies by hack such that some you can live with and others will absolutely require much more time in order for you to progress and add features after the release.

Technical Debt

Hacks are not always "bad". Many times they can get you out the door and ship a product that reworking things to be the "right" way would kill the project. Building software is like building a business - sometimes you have have to take on a little debt to get a huge win in the short term at the expense of paying things back off later.

Basically, what you want to do is not just take into account how much time it will save you in the short term VS how much it will cost you in the long term, but also how much money/how many features/how many more clients will I win by doing this hack and shipping early than if I wait and let my competitor ship first.

Sometimes shipping first is best, sometimes shipping later with a better product is best, but it all depends on a lot of factors that only you can answer.

By no means am I advocating hacks in all situations. Just like any debt, it must be paid back, and intrest varies by hack such that some you can live with and others will absolutely require much more time in order for you to progress and add features after the release.

Technical Debt

Hacks are not always "bad". Many times they can get you out the door and ship a product that reworking things to be the "right" way would kill the project. Building software is like building a business - somtimes you have have to take on a little debt to get a huge win in the short term at the expense of paying thigns back off later.

Basically, what you want to do is not just take into account how much time it will save you in the short term VS how much it will cost you in the long term, but also how much money/how many features/how many more clients will I win by doing this hack and shipping early than if I wait and let my competitor ship first.

Sometimes shipping first is best, sometimes shipping later with a better product is best, but it all depends on a lot of factors that only you can answer.

Technical Debt

Hacks are not always "bad". Many times they can get you out the door and ship a product that reworking things to be the "right" way would kill the project. Building software is like building a business - somtimes you have have to take on a little debt to get a huge win in the short term at the expense of paying thigns back off later.

Basically, what you want to do is not just take into account how much time it will save you in the short term VS how much it will cost you in the long term, but also how much money/how many features/how many more clients will I win by doing this hack and shipping early than if I wait and let my competitor ship first.

Sometimes shipping first is best, sometimes shipping later with a better product is best, but it all depends on a lot of factors that only you can answer.

By no means am I advocating hacks in all situations. Just like any debt, it must be paid back, and intrest varies by hack such that some you can live with and others will absolutely require much more time in order for you to progress and add features after the release.