Absolutely agreed. Articles in this vein rather get my goat, especially because the analogy to real debt is more clear: If someone wrote a consumer finance article like "All purchases of things other than cans of beans and Certificates of Deposit are like Mortgages, because what if your industry collapses tomorrow?" most people have the good sense to complain that the usually decent advice of saving a bit for a rainy day was being way exaggerated. And yet pieces that run something like "All programming of things other than washing machine microcontrollers are like technical debt, because what if your customer's needs suddenly change entirely?" get much more play. Sure, disasters can happen, and it pays to reserve some resources to be ready for them, but it also pays to use resources when times are good to expand. It seems to me Cunningham's point was to encourage a move towards balance; headlines that don't overshoot the mark.