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Show HN: Swimming in Tech Debt

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157 points loumf | 2 comments | 05 Sep 25 05:33 UTC | HN request time: 0.431s | source

This is the first half of my book, “Swimming in Tech Debt”. It is available at a pre-launch sale price of $0.99 (https://loufranco.com/tech-debt-book).

I have been working on it since January 2024. It is based on some posts in my blog, but expands on my ideas quite a bit.

In September 2024, excerpts appeared in Gergely Orosz’s Pragmatic Engineer newsletter, which helped me get a lot of feedback that expanded the book from my initial idea. This half is about what I expected to do before that —- the rest of the book goes into team and CTO practices.

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protocolture ◴[05 Sep 25 04:39 UTC] No.45135014[source]▶
DNR'ed pretty quickly.

You seem to be writing about other concepts and just redefining them as tech debt.

I left more detail in comments, but if I had purchased this book I would be seeking a refund, because I would be expecting a detailed exploration of technical debt, not just a focus on bad coding practice.

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1. loumf ◴[05 Sep 25 14:40 UTC] No.45139147[source]▶
This is why I shared half the book. I will probably continue to do so for at least a few months (even after the book is launched). I am sharing a lot of the content of the next six chapters on my email list and will probably always have that archived for them.

I really don't want people to buy it if they won't like it.

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2. protocolture ◴[06 Sep 25 05:15 UTC] No.45146793[source]▶
Its not really an issue of getting to read before I buy.

Its very much that its advertised as something its not.

You could do research into technical debt and bring other peoples anecdotes and experiences into the book and bring the content in line with the title and readers expectations.

Or you could update the title and therefore manage expectations to ensure there are no misunderstandings.