[burn_cycle]

This is probably the case in a lot if instances, however, it's not always the true. I think there is a lot of value to be gained for existing programmers who wish to dip their toes into something new before fully committing or refresh their skills after some time away.

I say this because it's helped me do both of these things. When MongoDB came out and I was looking to start a new personal project that looked like it could benefit from a nosql db, I bought a cheap course and was able to quickly see that boring old MySQL was more suitable. There was also the time when I needed to get back into Android development after a couple of years of doing only iOS and back-end work. For $10 I was able to quickly get up to speed on what had changed and identify what I needed to do deeper reading on.

All that said, I have trouble seeing how they will be able to make this investment worthwhile for their backers in the long-run.