How Thermal Dynamics and Material Science Can Launch Your Career as a Tech Expert Witness in Legal Cases
October 1, 2025The Hidden Risks of Stuck Code: How Thermal Expansion in Legacy Systems Reveals Tech Debt During M&A Due Diligence
October 1, 2025
As a CTO, I’ve spent years wrestling with systems that just won’t budge. My job isn’t just about picking the right tech—it’s about asking the right questions. Like: *Does this legacy system actually need to be fixed?* Or: *What’s the real cost of leaving it as-is?* The answers shape our strategy, budgets, and hiring. And sometimes, they come from the most unexpected places—like a stack of old coin tubes.
Introduction: Legacy Systems Are Like Old Coin Tubes
Picture this: a 1960s plastic coin tube, its walls brittle and shrunken, gripping a roll of UNC Lincoln Head pennies like a vice. You can’t pull them out. You can’t twist them loose. You’re stuck. Sound familiar? That’s how legacy systems feel. Tightly coupled. Poorly documented. Squeezing the life out of innovation.
These “coin tubes” aren’t rare. Every CTO hits one eventually—a system, a process, or even a team that’s calcified over time. The good news? The tricks we use to free vintage pennies? They’re the same ones we use to unstick legacy tech, legacy teams, and legacy thinking.
The Real Problem: Shrinkage, Not Just Age
It’s not the coin that’s the issue. It’s the *plastic*. Over time, soft plastics contract, welding themselves to the metal. Legacy systems do the same. They weren’t built for today’s demands—cloud, automation, real-time analytics. But here’s what most CTOs miss: the bottleneck isn’t just code—it’s money, people, and strategy.
Strategic Planning: When Is It Worth the Effort?
Before touching a line of code, I ask one question: Is this worth it? In coin collecting, some rolls are worth pocket change. Others? Hidden gems worth hundreds. Tech is no different. Not every legacy system needs a full rebuild. Here’s how I decide:
- Value Assessment: What’s the business upside? Increased revenue? Compliance? Faster time-to-market?
- Cost of Inaction: What breaks if we *do nothing*? Security debt? Rising maintenance? Lost customers?
- Extraction ROI: How much will it cost—in time, tools, risk—to extract value? Does it outweigh the gain?
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Quick example: That 1990s billing system costs $200k/year to patch but only brings in $100k in new revenue. Sounds like a no-go—until you learn a failed audit could cost $1M. Suddenly, the math changes.
Tech Roadmaps: Choose Your Extraction Method
Just like with coin tubes, no single solution works for every case. Your approach has to match the problem:
- Thermal Expansion (Hot Water/Oven): Slow but safe. Think incremental changes—containerizing parts of the system, isolating dependencies.
docker run -v /legacy:/app legacy-app --debug
Use this when your team knows the system well and can test changes safely. - Mechanical Cutting (Hacksaw/Pipe Cutter): Fast, but dangerous. Like slicing a tube with a hacksaw—you get access, but you might nick the coins.
Tech version: A big-bang rewrite. Only go this route if downtime is acceptable and you’ve got a solid rollback plan. - Chemical Dissolution (Acetone): Patient and thorough. Acetone takes days to eat through plastic.
Tech version: Gradual deprecation with feature flags, strangler patterns, and API gateways.enable_feature('new_billing', percentage: 5%) - Pressure (Air Pump): High-risk intervention. Works when nothing else does.
Tech version: Emergency refactoring—say, after a security breach. Only do this with clear guardrails and rollback protocols.
Managing Engineering Teams: The Human Physics of Extraction
Legacy systems aren’t just code. They’re culture. The people who built them may be gone, but their assumptions linger. To free the system, you need the right mix of talent—and the right mindset.
1. The “Thermal” Team
- Profile: Patient, detail-oriented, great at reverse engineering.
Like the engineer who boiled tubes gently, they work in small, controlled steps—refactoring, adding wrapper APIs, writing automated tests. - Hiring Tip: Look for engineers with legacy modernization or embedded systems experience. They’ve seen the constraints before.
2. The “Mechanical” Team
- Profile: Bold, decisive, unafraid of risk.
Like the hacksaw user, they move fast—but need strict checks.
Management Tip: Pair them with a “safety engineer” focused on monitoring and recovery.
3. The “Chemical” Team
- Profile: Obsessive about detail, long-term thinkers.
Like the acetone method, they chip away at dependencies over time.
Tooling: Invest in observability, dependency mapping, and drift detection tools.
Budget Allocation: Where to Spend (and Where to Save)
Legacy work isn’t just technical—it’s financial. Think of it like budgeting for coin restoration: you need to know where to invest, and where to cut corners.
1. Cost-Benefit Analysis by Method
| Method | Cost | Risk | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thermal (Gradual) | $Low | Low | High-value, stable systems |
| Mechanical (Cut) | $High | High | Low-value, urgent fixes |
| Chemical (Dissolve) | $Medium | Medium | Complex, interdependent systems |
Rule of Thumb: If a system generates over $500k/year, invest in thermal or chemical methods. Below $100k? Consider cutting or retiring it.
2. Hidden Costs
- Testing: 30–50% of your budget.
Like checking a coin’s value before pulling it out, run automated regression tests on the legacy interface. - Training: 10–15%.
New engineers need to understand the old system *before* they touch it. - Monitoring: 5–10%.
Track for regressions—like checking for scratches after hacksaw cuts.
Case Study: The Meghrig Tube (When Legacy Has Hidden Value)
Some legacy systems are like Meghrig tubes—thicker, stiffer, seemingly unopenable. A dealer once sold them for half price because they looked hopeless. But when opened? High-grade coins inside. The same happens in tech:
- Legacy codebases might have undocumented features that outperform modern tools.
- Legacy data could hold customer insights lost in migrations.
- Legacy teams often carry irreplaceable institutional knowledge.
Action: Before touching anything, run a “coin audit.” Use static analysis, data lineage tools, and interviews with original developers. You might find more than you bargained for.
Conclusion: The CTO’s Extraction Playbook
Whether you’re freeing pennies or code, the principles are the same:
- Assess value first. Not every system is worth saving.
- Match the method to the problem. Use thermal for stability, mechanical for speed, chemical for complexity.
- Build the right team. Thermal, mechanical, and chemical thinkers each bring something unique.
- Budget for the unseen. Testing, training, and monitoring aren’t luxuries—they’re lifelines.
- Respect the legacy. Like those Meghrig tubes, some systems have surprises inside.
The next time you hit a “stuck penny,” don’t reach for the hammer. Ask: *What’s the value? What’s the risk? Who’s on my team? And how long will it take the acetone to do its job?* In tech—just like in coin collecting—the best solutions aren’t the fastest. They’re the ones that respect the past, the people, and the future.
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