Paul Graham’s concept of “ramen profitability” has probably undergone major inflation owing to 1. Memetic desire induced by social networks 2. Startups becoming social games requiring perception management Which is paradoxical because cost of running a startup should have trended lower due to 1. Labor markets expanding from remote work 2. Improvements in opex owing to AI 3. Underlying consumer base expanding with more people/businesses coming onchain. Ultimately, all startups are economic endeavors. They generate value from underlying equity or selling (margins). There’s probably a new breed of founders that hit ramen profitability earlier on and avoid the noise altogether. There’s also a crop of founders that do social games exceptionally well. The mid - where you neither are profitable, through talking with customers. Or have a strong brand to accrue equity value - is where most startups die. It’s a scary death zone. Anyway - here’s Maggi, chai, and a beautiful color palette I’ll probably steal for a newsletter banner at some point.