The Debt of Future Truths

From a more strategic purview, in the tech sales world, there's a term often referred to internally as "Future Truths." These aren't yet known to be false promises, but much like how Tesla or ChatGPT wasn't built overnight, visionaries like Musk or Altman had to leverage future truths to secure investor backing. Unless these promises are delivered as expected, the burden of credibility-crunch accumulates as tech debt. Whether it's a bad chunk of code at the engineering level or delivery slippages at the tactical level, the necessity to borrow goodwill as the safest bet matters. That's why everyone who contributes to the future truth is accountable for future success and hence is prone to such liability.

By the way, folks who are afraid to join you just because of your tech debt are better to be ignored. Such people are a liability to me.

At the top level, failing to take the right decision for the right cause can also impose such a debt on the entire organization. That's why good businesses thrive with good leaders and vice versa. Great leaders determine how to manage debt perception. It often boils down to a narrative filtered through outside-in or inside-out perspectives. Balancing perfectionism with the risk of mediocrity is a delicate act, and the distinction between future truths and lies plays a crucial role. Continuous false promises and breaches of trust inevitably erode reputation. Whether it's debt or otherwise, one must borrow a lot of goodwill to sustain credibility.

The way I see it, a business is like your own family. Whether you buy that house with hard cash or go for a 20-year loan, the house symbolizes your growth and prosperity. Paying back loyally to whom we owe it matters the most. In the end, managing tech debt is about honoring commitments of continuous improvement and harvesting a good process culture that guarenteessour creditworthiness.

Great perspectives @raphael.moutard. Quite thought provoking.