---
title: "There’s No Limit to How Bad Code Can Get"
description: "Zach Kehs argues that software has no structural failure point: the business will sink long before the code reaches a floor."
author: "Pau Friedman"
kind: "link"
published_at: "2026-09-06"
url: "https://pau.fm/blog/2026/09/06/theres-no-limit-to-how-bad-code-can-get"
markdown_url: "https://pau.fm/blog/2026/09/06/theres-no-limit-to-how-bad-code-can-get.md"
canonical_url: "https://pau.fm/blog/2026/09/06/theres-no-limit-to-how-bad-code-can-get"
external_url: "https://zachkehs.com/blog/theres_no_limit_to_how_bad_code_can_get/"
---

# [There’s No Limit to How Bad Code Can Get](<https://zachkehs.com/blog/theres_no_limit_to_how_bad_code_can_get/>)

Software has no physical collapse threshold. Bad code can keep working while accumulating more
indirection, worse performance, and higher human cost; the business dies long before the code hits a
floor. Even “technical debt” is too optimistic a metaphor, because financial debt at least has
bankruptcy.

This explains why quality does not self-correct. There is no day when the codebase topples, only the
steady conversion of product margin into headcount, cycle time, and fear. If no natural constraint
exists, the team has to build one.