---
id: "quote-two-debts"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["¶13"]
tags: ["organizational-debt"]
related: ["concept-capability-debt", "concept-judgment-debt"]
quote: "Two debts are accruing on every tech company’s balance sheet right now: capability debt, as the apprenticeship pipeline thins, and judgment debt, as remaining engineers lose calibration when they stop producing. Both are invisible on the income statement. Both compound."
speaker: "Chengwei Liu and Balázs Kovács"
speakers: ["Chengwei Liu", "Balázs Kovács"]
sources: ["futures"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-futures"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-cl-84-big-tech-capability-crisis"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/big-techs-looming-capability-crisis"
sourceTitle: "Big Tech’s Looming Capability Crisis"
---
# Two Debts Accruing

## Quote — Two Debts Accruing

> "Two debts are accruing on every tech company's balance sheet right now: capability debt, as the apprenticeship pipeline thins, and judgment debt, as remaining engineers lose calibration when they stop producing. Both are invisible on the income statement. Both compound."
> — [[entity-chengwei-liu|Chengwei Liu]] and [[entity-bal-zs-kov-cs|Balázs Kovács]] (¶13)

The central diagnostic image of the piece: [[concept-capability-debt-d2|capability debt]] + [[concept-judgment-debt|judgment debt]], both invisible, both compounding.