In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about technical debt — what it is, why does it occur, and some techniques for reducing and avoiding it. Prismic - Sponsor Prismic is a Headless CMS that makes it easy to build website pages as a set of components. Break pages into sections of components using React, Vue, or whatever you like. Make corresponding Slices in Prismic. Start building pages dynamically in minutes. Get started at prismic.io/syntax. Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your code, track errors and monitor performance with Sentry. Sentry’s Application Monitoring platform helps developers see performance issues, fix errors faster, and optimize their code health. Cut your time on error resolution from hours to minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners new to Sentry can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code TASTYTREAT during sign up. Show Notes 03:17 - What is technical debt Outdated or hard to update code If you groan when you have to work on it, it might be a sign of technical debt Brittle code, easily breakable Quirks and features 06:55 - Why does it occur Over time, any garden left un-pruned will become overgrown Many people, many code styles Using hot new frameworks / techniques This is why seasoned developers don’t jump on new things You allow users to do literally anything 13:18 - Techniques for avoiding it Deny your FOMO of new things Abstract Write good tests Don’t put off refactors Update dependencies frequently Good standards Etsy has thousands of devs 20:08 - Examples in the real world Airline websites open in new windows all the time Cellphone carrier flashes the screen 100x 22:15 - Unfixable technical debt Agency work sometimes Links Next React Router TailwindCSS Redux Etsy Dave Ramsey Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets