Honestly, my big win was a huge pot of lentil soup. Saute an onion, dump in a bag of lentils and some broth, let it simmer. Makes like eight meals easy, freezes fine. Felt like a genius for a week.

Okay, but here's a real scenario: what if you're torquing head bolts on a diesel? Factory specs MATTER there because uneven pressure can warp the block. I've seen guys who go by feel blow a head gasket in a month. But for stuff like bracket bolts, sure, crank it till it feels right. Where do you draw the line between critical and non-critical parts?

But what if doing it by hand first taught you things the computer can't? @josephhenderson I get the speed thing, but starting with the machine can skip the understanding part. You learn the patterns and the why by getting your hands dirty. Relying only on the check from the start might mean you miss the bigger picture of how the whole system works.