Entropy Tax

ELI5 — The Vibe Check

Entropy tax is the cost you pay every time you touch a messy codebase. Every new feature takes 20% longer because the code is tangled. The tax is invisible on any single PR but compounds across quarters.

Real Talk

Entropy tax is the ongoing cost of operating in a disordered codebase — slower onboarding, more bugs, longer review cycles, harder debugging. It grows naturally unless paid down by periodic cleanup. Distinct from refactor tax (cost during active refactor), entropy tax is the steady-state cost of not refactoring.

When You'll Hear This

"Every feature costs 2x what it should — that's entropy tax." / "The entropy tax is why we budget cleanup sprints."