Tung oil on stairs is a mistake waiting to happen. It sits on the surface and never really cures hard, so every sock, every dog paw, every sock-footed kid drags it right back off. Oak under carpet for decades is dry and thirsty, sure, but that just means it soaks up oil like a sponge and you're redoing it every year. A wiping varnish or a hard wax oil builds a real film that actually takes a beating on a high traffic path. Fourteen steps is nothing, try keeping up with oil on a full staircase with three kids and a lab. Honey color looks great in photos until the first muddy boot.

Torqued in the wrong sequence got me too, spent a whole day chasing a leak that was just crisscross order.

How long did it take before the short version felt normal? Like was there a week where you kept catching yourself mid story and cutting it off? I ask because I had a similar thing happen in a checkout line, lady behind me said I gave her the whole movie when she just asked how my day was. I tried the short version thing for like 3 days and then slipped right back into my old ways. Curious if you had to practice it or if it just stuck after the DMV guy said it.