ViRGE 3D, upgraded the memory with 2 chips to play Tomb Raider.

Well, it was addressing the pay issue, and it is the most secure path to higher paid position fast. Moving on to new stuff comes naturally and the industry will push you to their next hotness, so not really a problem.

If your goal is to make yourself more valuable to employers/clients the best path is to specialize in some critical and niche enterprise tech. People that are good at stuff businesses were lured into using get paid very well. In my case it was SharePoint, but that’s just an example.

Knowing your way around the OS is taken for granted in these positions, so you have one piece of the puzzle, which is great, but you need the other pieces.

But be careful, if I have to choose between two experts, one with basic win+linux and the other only linux, I’m choosing the former.

I recall Louis Rossmann saying something along those lines, and sounded perfectly reasonable to me.

On the other hand, if you are buying cheap it’s usually because you aren’t familiar with the product and it’s characteristics. So you can take it as the price for learning about said product and what you really want from it.

For example, I got a cheap electric scooter for my wife on her birthday. We are new to these things, and didn’t even know if we would use it at all. Fast forward a year and we have used the crap out of it, even the kids can’t stop taking it out for a spin, and we now know what to look for and what sort of power and features we want when it comes time to replace it.