📉 DeepSeek Rattles Nvidia

Hey everybody,

In today’s newsletter, we’re diving into why companies using Kubernetes eventually start building custom controllers, and how to avoid the pitfalls of doing it wrong. We’ll also explore how AI is reshaping small businesses, Nvidia’s record-breaking $589 billion market plunge, and insights from a 50-year tech veteran.

Quick Links

⁉️ So you wanna write Kubernetes controllers?
If your company is using Kubernetes, chances are you’ll start thinking about building custom controllers. They’re powerful tools for managing resources with declarative configurations. But, without a solid understanding of Kubernetes and how controllers work, you can run into serious issues. If you’re planning to develop production-grade controllers that stand the test of time, here’s what you need to know to do it right.

🤖 Stay Competitive: Embrace AI or Get Left Behind
In today’s fast-paced world, adopting AI is no longer optional for small businesses looking to stay competitive. HubSpot’s AI-powered customer platform is your key to staying ahead of the curve. With HubSpot, you can automate those manual tasks that slow you down, personalize every customer interaction, and unlock powerful, actionable insights from your data. Try it free – no credit card needed! [ad]

😯 Nvidia Plunged $589 BIllion (the largest fall in history) over concerns about DeepSeek
Nvidia's stock dropped 17% on Monday, marking its biggest single day loss and wiping out a record amount of market value from the world's largest company. The decline was driven by investor worries over Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, whose low-cost approach has raised concerns that U.S. tech giants may have overspent on AI development.

DeepSeek's latest AI model, released last week, is seen as competitive with offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic but at a significantly lower cost, sparking fears about the sustainability of current AI investments. This news also triggered a broader selloff in the tech sector.

🧠 Insights into Frontend and Backend Development with AI
Paolo Galeone has been exploring AI in programming and shares valuable insights on using AI tools for both frontend and backend development. He offers tips on refining prompts for better results and highlights common pitfalls newer developers should avoid.

💼 Life Lessons from a 50 year tech career
David Patterson, a tech veteran with 50 years of experience, has spent his career in systems research at UC Berkeley and aiding Google in advancing their AI initiatives. He recently wrote a blog post sharing 16 life and career lessons, packed with wisdom for both personal and professional growth. In my opinion this is a great read.

8 Tech Books I’m Reading in 2025

In an effort to become more well-rounded in this industry, I want to share 8 TECHNICAL books that I plan to read through the course of 2025.

I love to see what others are reading and learning, I'm sharing this because many of you out there share the same interest.

What are you reading this year?

More Reading

• Want to run DeepSeek-R1 on your own machine? The folks at Unsloth managed to shrink the massive 720GB, 761-billion-parameter model by 80%, bringing it down to a much more manageable 131GB.

• Railway builds software infrastructure designed with people in mind. Here’s how they scaled Slack to handle thousands of developers seamlessly.

• The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a total disaster.

• Join a vibrant community of developers and IT professionals (and newbs) focused on helping you become indispensable in today’s job market.

• How do various compression algorithms work?

Favorite Tweets

Until next week,

Travis.