Debt compounds, but so does paying it back

What I took from it

• Treading water: teams ship their critical work but never get ahead of their debt.
• The repayment snowball: each piece of debt paid down frees time, which pays down the next piece faster.
• Compounding works both ways: what makes debt dangerous also makes small, steady repayment effective.
• The lead’s job: protect time for the first few payments; the rest builds on itself.
• Pairs with my view: tech debt snowballs, then avalanches. Repayment can snowball too.