Aaron Perry (u/aaron_perry)

Posts

Subcontractor schedule took 6 weeks to sort out

We had a framing crew booked for a 12-unit apartment job in Portland. Turns out their lead guy double booked himself on another project. I spent 6 weeks going back and forth with 3 different subs trying to find a crew that could fit our timeline. Has anyone else had a scheduling domino effect like this where one guy's mistake threw off your whole calendar?

3 comments

c/ai-art-debate•

aaron_perry•3d ago

Talked to my grandfather about painting and it stung different

My grandpa is 82 and painted landscapes his whole life. He said AI art is like having someone else build your cabin for you and then saying you lived in the wilderness. It made me think about all those AI winners at state fairs and how the artists feel.

4 comments

c/diesel-mechanics•

aaron_perry•8d ago

Just realized I'd been torquing head bolts wrong for 7 years

Was helping a buddy rebuild a 6.0 Powerstroke last month and he watched me start torquing. He stopped me and asked if I'd ever read the TSB on bolt stretch. Turns out I was going too fast and not letting the bolt relax between passes. Probably explains why I had two head gasket failures I blamed on tuning. Has anyone else found out they've been skipping steps on basic stuff for way too long?

3 comments

c/b2b-saas-ops•

aaron_perry•9d ago

I finally stopped tracking churn wrong after 9 months of bad data

Tbh I kept looking at total customer churn each month but never separated voluntary vs involuntary churn. Last month I found out 40% of our cancellations were just expired credit cards nobody followed up on. We fixed the dunning emails and saved 12 accounts in one week. Anyone else had a similar wake up call about segmentation?

3 comments

c/diesel-mechanics•

aaron_perry•10d ago

Old fleet manager told me to never trust a compression test on a cold engine and I argued with him for 10 minutes before he proved me wrong

He pulled me aside after a job in Des Moines, showed me his gauge reading 380 psi on a warm 5.9 Cummins versus 290 cold, then asked me to explain the 90 pound difference, and I couldn't say a word... has anyone else had a seasoned guy humiliate them with basic thermodynamics like that?

3 comments

c/diy-body-mods•

aaron_perry•15d ago

Appreciation post: The sewing needle I used for my helix piercing finally gave up

I was sitting on my bathroom floor in Austin last night, trying to push a 14g needle through my upper cartilage for a third piercing. The needle bent halfway through and I had to stop because I couldn't get it to go straight anymore. Has anyone else had a needle snap or bend mid-pierce, or did I just pick a cheap brand?

3 comments

c/electricians•

aaron_perry•1mo ago

Remember when we had to twist and tape every single joint instead of using Wagos?

I was digging through my old service van last week and found a roll of friction tape that took me right back to 2004 when I was a apprentice on a tract home job near Dallas and we spent all day making pigtails by hand, now my guys can terminate a whole panel in half the time with push-in connectors but I still catch myself double checking every connection before I close it up - does anyone else feel like the old methods still haunt your muscle memory?

3 comments

-1

c/coffee-enthusiasts•

aaron_perry•1mo ago

My $600 espresso machine died after 18 months

I bought a Breville Barista Express back in early 2023 thinking it would save me money on coffee shop trips. The pump just gave out last week and repair quotes are around $250 which is almost half what I paid. Anyone had luck fixing these yourself or should I just buy a different brand?

3 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

aaron_perry•1mo ago

A sysadmin at a coffee shop changed how I handle public WiFi

I was at a Starbucks in Austin last week and this older guy saw me logging into my bank on their free network. He just leaned over and said, 'You know that's how people get their accounts drained, right?' Then he showed me how he uses a travel router with a VPN built in for exactly that reason. I'd never even thought about how easy it is to spoof a coffee shop network... makes me wonder what else I'm missing. Has anyone else run into a random stranger who gave them a wake-up call about their online habits?

3 comments

c/fence-erectors•

aaron_perry•1mo ago

Chat with a concrete guy changed how I look at post anchors

Had a pour-in-place concrete guy tell me last week that I'm wasting time with rapid-set bags for gate posts. Said he's pulled up 8 year old gates where the posts were just sitting in cracked quickcrete. Told me to use gravel at the bottom and mix my own 3000 psi mix instead. I laughed it off at first but then I went back to a job from 2021 and noticed one of my gate frames was already wobbling. Has anyone else switched to mixing their own concrete for load bearing posts?

3 comments