Who are the tech-debt climate deniers? There’s almost nothing that frustrates me more than when government officials choose to outright ignore the warnings of climate scientists about the impending threats of climate change. And yes, I will eventually tie this back to software development. Just bear with me.

Government officials, in an ideal world, arrived in their position because of their leadership abilities. We trust them to lead us and our society. Likewise, scientists arrived in their position because of their scientific abilities. Government officials can’t be expected to be experts in every field. They need to place trust in those who have become experts in a particular field. So, for example, when they’re legislating climate policies, they should really listen to and trust what climate scientists are saying.

Ignore the experts

Unfortunately, for reasons that I won’t go into now, many of our government officials have chosen to ignore the warnings. The problem arises when natural disasters start occurring at exorbitant rates. This results in loss of life and millions of dollars in emergency assistance, insurance claims, and reconstruction costs. It’s not until their wallets (or re-election prospects) are affected that they reach out to the experts for solutions. But all the experts say that it would’ve been much more efficient and cost effective to have taken action when they first rang the alarm bells. But now it may be too late!

It’s amazing how analogous this can be to the world of software development. The business side of the company are the leaders. They hire software engineers because they are the experts in their field. But the business side can often be tech-debt climate deniers. They often ignore engineers’ warnings about why they should be given time to tackle technical debt and shoring up a crumbling infrastructure instead of cranking out new features left and right. Until one day when that crumbling infrastructure finally collapses and customers start threatening to leave. The business side of the company suddenly turns to the experts to patch the holes and extinguish the flames.

We told you so

And just like the climate scientists, the software engineers will say that it would’ve been much more efficient and cost effective to have taken action when they first rang the alarm bells. But now it may be too late!