Technical debt is the future cost created by building quickly today — shortcuts in architecture, tests, or structure that make every later change slower until the debt is paid down or the code rewritten.
Like financial leverage, technical debt is a tool. Taken deliberately against a validation deadline it's smart; accumulated invisibly it compounds.
You can't read the code, but you can manage the debt: ask what shortcuts were taken, what they'll cost to fix, and which ones block the next milestone.
Practical answers
Yes, and it should — zero-debt first versions are over-engineered. The difference is whether the debt is documented and deliberate.
When it starts taxing every new feature, or before scaling traction. Paying it down pre-validation is usually premature optimization.
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