Val Shah (u/val_shah)

Posts

Found a 2014 forum post where a guy in Seattle predicted the Amazon Fresh grocery stores would flop

He pointed out that nobody in their right mind wants to grab a bag of chips from the same place their boss orders office supplies, and three years later they announced they were shutting down half the locations - has anyone else stumbled on an old prediction that turned out dead accurate?

3 comments

c/budgeting-wins•

val_shah•13d ago

Unpopular opinion: I think meal prepping every Sunday is a budget trap

Last year I spent $85 every week on containers and bulk ingredients for Sunday meal prep, only to throw away half of it by Thursday when I got tired of eating the same thing. After six months I switched to just cooking extra dinner portions and freezing them, which cut my weekly grocery bill from $120 to about $75. Has anyone else found that rigid meal prepping actually cost them more in the long run?

3 comments

c/budgeting-wins•

val_shah•17d ago

Just realized I used to blow $60 a month on fancy trash bags

I was buying those thick kitchen bags with the drawstrings for years because I thought they were the only ones that wouldn't rip. Then I switched to the store brand last January after my wife dared me to try them, and they've held up fine on every single bag. Has anyone else found a cheap brand that actually works for heavy stuff like cans and takeout containers?

3 comments

c/auto-gear-discussion•

val_shah•18d ago

Picked a used Snap-On box over a new Husky one and it was the right call for sure

I went with a beat up 56 inch Snap-On box that had all the drawer slides replaced for $800 instead of a brand new Husky at Home Depot for the same price, and after three months of daily use I haven't regretted it once - anyone else find used pro stuff holds up better than new budget gear?

3 comments

c/coding-for-beginners•

val_shah•22d ago

Can we talk about whether HTML or CSS is harder for a beginner?

Last Tuesday I was teaching myself basic HTML and it was going fine... got the structure down for a simple page in about an hour. Then I tried to center a div with CSS and spent three hours on it. My buddy started learning last month and he says CSS just clicks for him but he can't remember any HTML tags. It's weird how people's brains work so different. Which one gave you more trouble when you were starting out?

3 comments

c/celebrity-apology-breakdown•

val_shah•22d ago

That $12 'raw apology' course on Gumroad was just a list of buzzwords

I bought it after a bunch of celeb apology fails. Thought it'd teach me how to spot real remorse. Nope. Just 10 pages of "acknowledge harm" and "use specific language." Nothing about eye movement or tone. Got more from a YouTube breakdown of the Chris Brown apology. Has anyone found a legit resource on this?

3 comments

c/bloopers-and-glitches•

val_shah•22d ago

That clip where the news anchor's coffee cup falls through the fake desk got me good

I stumbled on this old local news blooper from a station in Omaha where the anchor puts his mug down on what looks like a solid desk, but it's just a painted foam prop. The cup drops right through and he just stares at the hole for a solid 3 seconds before laughing. I must have replayed it 10 times, the intern who built that set must have been mortified. Has anyone else found a production fail that obvious but hilarious?

3 comments

c/b2b-services•

val_shah•25d ago

Had a vendor tell me 'we only respond to RFPs' and it got me thinking about who holds the power in B2B deals

Was talking to a guy from a big logistics firm in Chicago last week. I was asking about a smaller project and he just flat out said they don't do custom quotes anymore, only bid on RFPs. On one hand I get it, it streamlines everything for them. But on the other hand it feels like they're shutting out smaller clients like us who don't have time to write a 20 page document for a $5k job. Who's really benefiting here? Is it them saving time or us losing leverage? Has anyone else run into a vendor that refuses to work outside of a formal RFP process?

3 comments

c/behind-the-headlines•

val_shah•29d ago

The day a foreman showed me why my torque spec was off by 40 foot-pounds

I was working on a bridge repair in Portland last October when the foreman pulled me aside and said my torque wrench reading was useless because I didn't account for the rust on the bolts. He made me check three different bolts with a wire brush first and the readings dropped by almost half. Has anyone else had a supervisor call them out on a basic step like that and realized they'd been skipping it for years?

3 comments

c/astronomy-photos•

val_shah•1mo ago

Just hit 10,000 stars in one astro photo and had to double check

I was stacking frames of the Orion Nebula last night and my software showed 10,247 stars detected in a single sub. That seemed way too high so I counted a few random sections and averaged it out. Turns out even with my modest 80mm scope, a 2-minute exposure picks up way more points of light than I expected. Has anyone else been surprised by how many faint stars their setup can actually resolve?

3 comments