Debt in any form is a redflag. A lot of startups start with a vision but no clear direction. We code as per the final requirements to make sure it works once we reach the million userbase. There is nothing wrong however changes happen all the times and it’s hard to predict the final product resulting in discarding lot of code. Even worse, if the code stays, it affects the entire infrastructure badly. It’s like carrying diesel in your car trunk while you are running on petrol. You have a useful fuel but it’s not just right to drive your company.
Best practices include the following
– Build a modular software by dividing project into as small parts as possible
– Every part ( module ) is independent
– Ship the software as soon as possible
– Try to clean up code periodically. Ideally once a month for a day or every quarter. If you are not doing it at least twice a year, you will have to pay high interest on it
– If you can afford, hire a hacker whose job is to cut the code into 50% to perform the same amount of work.
In terms of code, lesser the better.