In the beginning there was NPM, and for a time it was good. Packages went forth and multiplied. The New Gods proclaimed the great demon Dependency Management had been slain. But The Old Gods knew better, for they had seen much and knew that the demon can never be killed, only held at bay.
The Old Gods were ignored. In the folly of a young age grew an abundance of packages and with them grew the scourge of dependency. In the depths beneath the earth, in a place beyond memory, the great demon stirred.
The first sign something was wrong was non-deterministic package version mismatches. “This is fine!” The New Gods declared. “A temporary setback, nothing more! We can fix it.” And so they introduced shrinkwrap, a lamp to combat the growing darkness.
But it proved to be too little, too late, and dusk continued to fall. The New Gods suffered their first major defeat at the [Battle of Left-pad](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/23/npm_left_