Technical Debt is Entropy In Software | Rohan Gupta

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2024-12-28 21:30:05

Entropy is the ultimate boss battle [1]. As the reason why ice melts, why tires burst, and why ink diffuses – thermodynamic entropy is a fact of the physical world, sharply following the arrow of time [2].

There’s something about inevitability that I think is fascinating, especially when you can see it unfold in front of you – my favourite visualisation is below (thanks Gemini).

So, how does entropy grow? Academics and practicioners alike believe that entropy follows an S-curve [4], with its three stages likened to those of ink diffusing in water.

This is strikingly similar to the business lifecycle curve above! Indeed, prior art agrees that business and technology lifecycles are overlayed entropy curves [5].

Entropy in business is largely a representation of diffusion of a particular product, driven by the forces of supply and demand. While entropy is often likened to “disorder”, I like to use “disruption” - permeation of new (ink) into old (water). It is neither good nor bad, simply inevitable.

Since we are talking about software and not atoms, let’s turn to information theory to understand the information contained in software programs.