Yeah I just carry a mini fridge on my back. Totally worth it.

Price doesn't mean it's bulletproof" is exactly right. It's a pattern I see everywhere now, not just with tools. We pay more expecting reliability but companies just slap a premium on stuff that's built the same as the cheap version. Ever noticed how your car's fancy infotainment system glitches more than a $80 tablet would?

Three buckets in and I was seriously questioning all my life choices that led me to that moment. I remember thinking, "This is what my drill has been hiding from me all these years?" The smoothness was unreal, like the mud actually wanted to be on the wall instead of fighting me the whole way. My arm felt like it was going to fall off by the third batch, but the finish was so clean I almost cried. Now I'm wondering if I've just been making my life harder with the mixer or if all those air bubbles were just me being too aggressive with the drill speed. Either way, my shoulder is going to hate me tomorrow but my trowel work has never looked better.

Wait, are you telling me I could have been stressing over that "12 piece rule" for nothing? In my experience, those kinds of hard numbers change depending on who you're talking to, and @colegarcia your buddy's take makes a lot of sense to me. I've seen portfolios that had like 18 pieces where maybe 10 were strong and the rest were filler, and it just looked sloppy. And honestly, I'm the guy who'd probably show up with 9 pieces and call it a day because I ran out of good ones, so maybe I'm not the one to listen to anyway. But I think there's something to not boxing yourself in like you said, especially if experimenting is part of your thing.

Read that same thing in a magazine article a few months back.