Maybe old habits have their place though. A single pen can force you to solve depth with line quality, not just weight.

My old fridge in my first apartment did that same click for a month straight. I was convinced it was a ghost trying to communicate. Turns out it was just a twenty dollar part throwing a tantrum. I spent more on earplugs than the fix would have cost.

Tell me about it. Drives you nuts finding that one tiny flaw.

Oh man, I was totally in the cheap caulk gun camp for years. Figured it was all the same. Borrowed my neighbor's nicer one when mine broke mid-project and it was a total game changer. That steady pressure makes such a difference, you don't realize how much you're fighting the cheap one. I'm never going back, it's worth the extra ten bucks just to not have a huge mess to clean up.

Honestly I read this article about time perception and work. They said when you're doing a lot of the same small tasks, your brain kind of blurs it all together. So 500 hours can feel like nothing because there's no big moment to remember. Tbh it makes total sense with stuff like CAD work where you're just fixing details all day. The number seems huge but the feeling is just one long grind.