For a few weeks I’ve been trying to update my blog without success. On the one hand, GitHub showed the most recent source code and my live blog was showing the latest and greatest blog. The issue? The local server failed to show my newest blog. And, worse my text editor was not showing it.

Technical debt, similar to financial debt, is when you have so much going on, everything is crossing hairs, unable to find the end of the rope, and it feels like being on life support but in technology terms. Here, here and here is some more explanations on technical debt (from a software point of view).

Today was no different. In the midst of major progressions the last few months I let files, folders, and folders within folders get in the way. Simply put I was opening the wrong folder with my text editor and didn’t have my terminal enabled to catch the error.

The lesson:

  • File and site map
  • Parent and child folders according to the discipline
  • Kill all duplicate files/ folders as they surface
  • Don’t code when your half asleep and could inadvertently make new folders
  • Live by the rule: touch one system

Special thanks to Allen Wyma for pairing w/ me and highlighting this human error.

An entrepreneur, strategist, and former Army Captain, David Molina owns Molinas, a government contracting firm specializing in equipment and material procurement for U.S. federal agencies in support of mission critical requirements.