The Startup Death Valley Graph

Content Glenn F. Henriksen henriksen When men refer to themselves as "alpha males", I hear that in the context of software, where alpha versions are unstable, missing important features, filled with flaws, and not fit for the public.

Content Bored Linus Torvalds BoredTorvalds Linux kernel v5 will utilise machine learning to compute big data in the cloud via the serverless blockchain - expecting a full board of investors by April.

Content DEVELOPERS DESIGNERS PROJECT MANAGERS QA SYSADMINS SEEN BY DEVELOPERS SEEN BY DESIGNERS SEEN BY PROJECT MANAGERS SEEN BY QA f.Ok of SEEN BY SYSADMINS ProarammerHumor.io

The tech industry's most expensive learning curve visualized perfectly. When you're new to coding, you're that poor stick figure stepping on a rake for a $50,252 lesson. But after gaining experience? You're still stepping on the same expensive rake—just with more confidence and style while skateboarding down stairs. The real skill isn't avoiding mistakes; it's making them look intentional while your AWS bill quietly bankrupts you in the background. Senior developers don't make fewer mistakes—they just know how to fall with pizzazz .

Evolution of excuses. Left panel: Developer proudly proclaims "It works on my machine!" while the ops guy silently contemplates career choices. Right panel: Same developer, now with DevOps skills and a suspicious sunburn, declares "It works on my container!" The ops guy's expression remains unchanged – he knows containerized garbage is still garbage, just more portable. We've successfully moved the problem from one isolated environment to another, slightly fancier isolated environment. Progress!

Remember when you thought COVID lockdowns were bad for hardware prices? Sweet summer child. First the pandemic turned GPU shopping into a battle royale where scalpers ruled supreme and mining rigs ate everything in sight. RAM prices went bonkers, and suddenly your "budget build" cost more than a used car. Then just when supply chains started recovering and you could finally afford that upgrade, the AI boom showed up like a final boss with unlimited HP. Now every tech giant is hoarding GPUs like they're infinity stones, and Nvidia can't print H100s fast enough. Your dream of a reasonably priced RTX 4090? Cute. Those are going to data centers now, buddy. The real tragedy? We survived the crypto mining apocalypse, clawed through the pandemic shortage, only to get absolutely demolished by ChatGPT's older siblings demanding entire warehouses of compute. At this rate, you'll need a mortgage to build a gaming PC by 2025.