My brother coined a term that I really love: "feature karma". He's an actual Buddhist, so he used the term "karma" not to mean a simple score with only positive connotations, but as something you're chained to and must work off should you at some point want to move past it.
I often try to explain the concept of Technical Wealth as the other side of the spectrum from Technical Debt.
Technical Wealth pays dividends; Tech Debt charges interest on which the payments will eventually become unwieldy.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't take on Technical Debt, like many startups do with real money you can and should go into debt in order to get your business off the ground. But just like irresponsible financial management can kill your company, so can irresponsible technical management.
