Identifying too many aspects of ongoing product work as tech debt has caused engineering teams to over-invest too early. They fear the tech debt in the future if they don’t make the decision now that’s perfect for that orders-of-magnitude-bigger future. They think tech debt can be avoided with more tech investment, but I don’t think it works that way. You want to invest slowly and constantly, just like the stock market.

So many people think they can time the stock market right and buy the dip - engineers think the same way and try to predict where they should invest heavily up front. Instead, invest where you know you need it and then expand that investment as you expand the product.