Man, I gotta be honest I really DO see this differently from a lot of people here. Bob's method might be sloppy but I think the old school 'feel' has its place on some stuff like control cable tension if you've been doing it for 30 years. But cross threading a nylock nut on a flight control is just pure carelessness, that's not 'feel' that's bad habits taking over. The manual is there for a reason especially on critical parts like flight controls, and it makes zero sense to risk a whole airplane just because you don't want to grab a torque wrench. I've seen guys who can torque by hand on non critical stuff and it's fine, but on anything that moves air or controls the plane you better have that wrench in your hand.

Aw man, I've done this exact thing more times than I care to count. Wasted a whole sheet of 3/4" plywood last month because I tried to cut corners on a layout for a closet shelf. Ended up with two pieces too short to use for anything but blocking. Sometimes you just gotta slow down and double check everything before you make the cut.

I used to be one of those guys who thought new tools were always better, you know, all that fancy ergonomic design and lighter materials. But your buddy's grandpa's hammer story makes a lot of sense now, @drewr15. I borrowed an old framing hammer from a neighbor last summer and it was surprisingly better balanced than my regular one. It just felt more solid when it swung, like the weight was exactly right for driving nails. Made me realize there's something to be said for that old school craftsmanship, your mileage may vary of course.

Hold on, let me play devil's advocate like you said. Lots of folks in Portland totally rely on their cars for getting around, and if your commute is longer, has hills, or you've got kids to drop off, biking isn't just a simple math problem the way @phoenix573 might think. Your mileage may vary a ton, but that $15 parking actually makes the car way more expensive compared to gas, which most people already pay for.

You had 28 checked off but only 12 real ones" - that's wild. I gotta ask though, did you ever look back at those weeks and think "yeah I definitely slept fine that night" when you really didn't? Like, was your brain just filling in the blanks with what you wanted to be true, or were you actually that out of touch with your own sleep? I'm curious if you caught yourself actively lying or if it felt real at the time. Because that's the scary part to me - realizing your own memory is just making stuff up to make you feel better.