OLD WAY
The Real Cost of the Old Way
The friction you've learned to live with.
Dependency Hell
"npm install" for a simple project. node_modules: 500 packages. You wrote 200 lines. You're responsible for 2 million.
Then the security advisory:
"Critical vulnerability in left-pad-utils-helper-lite"
You've never heard of it.
It's four dependencies deep.
It's in production.
Ecosystem Fashion Cycles
The languages underneath are stable. C is still C. The churn is market-driven fashion, not technical necessity.
2018: "React Hooks change everything!"
2020: "Server Components are the future!"
2022: "Signals are the new paradigm!"
2024: "AI-first frameworks are here!"
Every 18 months: Rewrite. Every 18 months: Relearn. The foundation didn't change—the fashion did.
Meetings That Should Be Code
Week 1: "Which database should we use?"
Week 2: "Let's evaluate three ORMs."
Week 3: "We need to align on architecture."
Week 4: "Stakeholder review of the tech stack."
Week 5: "Let's revisit the database decision."
Meanwhile: Nothing shipped.
The Bug That "Shouldn't Have Happened"
The code looked right.
The tests passed.
Code review approved.
Production: NullPointerException at 2 AM.
"But that should never be null there."
"The tests cover this."
"It worked in staging."
Surprise. Hope isn't a strategy.
The Cost Adds Up
Hours spent on dependency updates
___
Hours spent on framework migrations
___
Hours spent in decision meetings
___
Hours spent debugging "impossible" bugs
___
What could you have built instead?
There's Another Way
Not hope.
Proof.
Not dependencies.
Ownership.
Not fashion.
Foundations.
Not meetings.
Building.