Learned that lesson with a $12 smart plug that literally sparked and died when I plugged in a fan. Guess you get what you pay for unless you're paying for the box it ships in, lol.

Throwing a cheap probe on the grate immediately showed my "steady" smoker was lying to me too.

Tracked 60 apps in a notebook after my Excel sheet fell apart. Wrote down the job title, the date I applied, and a tiny box for each follow up. Response rate went up mostly because I was forced to see the gaps, like three weeks of nothing on a lead I thought was alive. Now I put a red X on Fridays on anything over 10 days old, then I either email them again or drop it for good.

Wow, specs lie worse than my ex's dating profile!

That thing about the lady's 68 degree kitchen really hit me... because nobody ever talks about how the flour itself changes with the seasons. I buy from the same mill year round and even here in Portland my dough acts totally different in July versus December. Humidity in the bag, how long it sat on the shelf, even the grind that week can shift things. You can chase grams of water all day but if your flour is soaking up moisture from the air differently, that number means nothing. I've started just feeling the dough and adding water bit by bit until it feels right... like a handshake, you know?