I think this is a very long-winded way of saying that you should really just be thoughtful about the terms you use in the workplace. This, to me, is symptomatic of a larger issue of taking buzzwords and using them willy-nilly without careful thought put into it.
I've been on teams saying they're building a "platform," when what they're building isn't a platform at all. I think the same can go for tech debt. Like the article says, tech debt is purposely using a suboptimal solution to the task at hand for the sake of efficiency, with a known understand that the debt needs to be paid back later. If what you're doing doesn't fit that definition, it's not tech debt. If what you're building is a CRUD web app, it's not a platform. If what you're using is a library, it's not a framework.
I'm ranting a bit here, but stuff like this is a large part of why it's so difficult for young engineers to develop into more senior engineers. It's frustrating when every team uses the same terms for different things, especially when it seems as if those terms should have a more precise definition. It really limits a dev's ability to map out the project, what's doing what and why.
I've been on teams saying they're building a "platform," when what they're building isn't a platform at all. I think the same can go for tech debt. Like the article says, tech debt is purposely using a suboptimal solution to the task at hand for the sake of efficiency, with a known understand that the debt needs to be paid back later. If what you're doing doesn't fit that definition, it's not tech debt. If what you're building is a CRUD web app, it's not a platform. If what you're using is a library, it's not a framework.
I'm ranting a bit here, but stuff like this is a large part of why it's so difficult for young engineers to develop into more senior engineers. It's frustrating when every team uses the same terms for different things, especially when it seems as if those terms should have a more precise definition. It really limits a dev's ability to map out the project, what's doing what and why.