What is technical debt really about?

When you think about the reasons for reducing technical debt; what do your think about?

I bet a lot of people would answer that they want the code to look nice, follow certain standards etc. Essentially the code should be something you are proud of. Some of you will probably take it to the next level and say it is because you want code to be easy to maintain. Easy to maintain is hopefully a formal way of saying that you want the code to look nice.

But why is it that you want the code to be maintainable? Because it makes you happy! The code becomes something you are proud of, is easy to work with and you will love your boss/customer for letting you spend some time on things you think are important. And happy people typically form happy teams and I strongly believe happy teams achieve more in the long run.

In this article that mentions this important thing in its very last section starts by covering the difference between good and bad technical debt and a few tips on how to manage technical debt. You should read it if you care.