Does any of you use one of these (Dokploy, CapRover, Dokku, Coolify) like Netlify, as advertised by some?

For me, the core feature of Netlify is building and deploying static websites quickly, with minimal configuration and triggered by git commits.

Does any of these really resemble that experience (except for the CDN Netlify uses, of course)?

I share the author's sentiment completely. At my day job, I manage multiple Kubernetes clusters running dozens of microservices with relative ease. However, for my hobby projects—which generate no revenue and thus have minimal budgets—I find myself in a frustrating position: desperately wanting to use Kubernetes but unable to due to its resource requirements. Kubernetes is simply too resource-intensive to run on a $10/month VPS with just 1 shared vCPU and 2GB of RAM.

This limitation creates numerous headaches. Instead of Deployments, I'm stuck with manual docker compose up/down commands over SSH. Rather than using Ingress, I have to rely on Traefik's container discovery functionality. Recently, I even wrote a small script to manage crontab idempotently because I can't use CronJobs. I'm constantly reinventing solutions to problems that Kubernetes already solves—just less efficiently.

What I really wish for is a lightweight alternative offering a Kubernetes-compatible API that runs well on inexpensive VPS instances. The gap between enterprise-grade container orchestration and affordable hobby hosting remains frustratingly wide.

I have a hard time believing that a computer scientist or engineer from a top school will not have an easier time gaining admittance into software engineering than someone not. Anyone not will always have a proverbial hill to climb. I would agree that continued success has diminishing returns from a degree. This is often the argument for designing interviews that reflect real world work.

That said, my point was really that if you can afford a house with a fig tree in Silicon Valley then in some way your stars aligned and to see people unhappy over frivolous things was an enlightening experience that taught me something. My stars didn't align, until they did, and I had to learn to appreciate that. It doesn't mean those people didn't need to overcome adversity or have a story worth listening to or admiring.

> This isn't as uncommon a path as you might believe. I was enlisted in the USAF from 2005-2010, spent months and months Iraq and Afghanistan etc.

I'd be interested in knowing the statistics on veterans in Silicon Valley and tech in general. I've met some, but I wouldn't call it common. I might agree that it's somewhere between common and uncommon, but who knows? If these statistics are collected they are not published or widely disseminated. When I usually meet veterans they're not enlisted, they're officers. The most public activity I've seen is a group at Google that has 2,000 members, I do not know how many of those work in engineering roles.

That said, I'm happy to fanboy one of my favorite authors and Silicon Valley veterans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Fick

On a similar note, I run a popular (and probably the best) personal finance website on the internet.

I use data and math to find the most optimal ways to eat, buy health insurance, etc... And everything is free.

I make trivial amounts of money by donations.

I've seen my competitors are significantly worse quality, downright Dave Ramsey Snowball effect tier bad advice. But they sell advertising space for snake oil, they sell yet another budgeting spreadsheet, books, courses, and more.

Their marketing is pretty interesting "I'm a bad girl that likes fashion, so I invest and save." Or something to give them personality. They claim to make 30k+/yr. But they don't get the traffic and I'm sure they haven't been on BBC.

I'm happy with the thank you emails I get, my day job pays well.

It's just another example of lower quality, but charging money making bigger profits.

One thing missing from her story. Did she pay cash for the Model 3? Because if she's making bank payments on her new Tesla I'm not sure she legally can cut it up.

I'm not saying that what she's done isn't amazing. But if her bank learns what she's done they will not I would think be very happy.