Talked with a dev in Austin who made me question my whole AI workflow

I was at a meetup last week and this guy from a small startup showed me how he uses local LLMs for code refactoring instead of paying for API calls. Said he saved $400 a month just by switching to a quantized model on his laptop. Made me realize I've been overspending on cloud AI tools for simple tasks. Anyone else started running more stuff locally and seen a difference?

Rant: My favorite chisel snapped right through the handle

Was working on a door jamb in a 1920s house in Portland last week and my old Stanley chisel just gave out. The handle split clean in two when I was paring a mortise - never had that happen before. Had to borrow a buddy's Narex to finish the job. Any of you ever have a handle fail on a chisel you've used for years?

Can we talk about that old shop guy who told me to always face the same direction when truing wheels

Guy at the shop in Denver swore facing east every time would keep the wheel balanced, and after 6 months of doing it I realized he was just messing with me because the wheels come out fine either way, so has anyone else gotten weird superstitious advice that turned out to be total garbage?

Told my rate to a fellow freelancer and they laughed, now I'm second guessing everything

I finally brought my own inspector to a showing and it saved my butt

My realtor kept pushing me to use her preferred inspector, but something felt off. I found a guy named Dave on Google with solid reviews in my area and paid him $350 to come walk through a house I was serious about. He found a mold issue in the crawlspace that the seller's disclosure said nothing about. The fix would have cost me around $5,000 easy. I told the seller and they dropped the price by exactly that much. I learned that paying out of pocket for my own eyes on a property is worth every dollar. Has anyone else had a bad experience trusting the realtor's guy?

Pondering solid wood vs plywood for a job that got me thinking

I been at this 20 years and still catch myself debating stuff I thought I had figured out. Last month I had a kitchen job over in Grand Rapids, lady wanted all solid maple doors and face frames. I went back and forth with myself for a week before starting, cause I know plywood boxes are more stable and cheaper but solid wood just feels right. I ended up going with plywood for the boxes and solid for the doors and drawer fronts, which is more or less what I always do. But now I'm wondering if I shoulda pushed her to do all solid, cause there's a tiny bit of cupping on one of the drawer fronts already. Has anyone else had a job where you wished you went the other way on a material choice?

TIL a friend's advice about taking Sundays off saved my sanity

My buddy Mike who runs a graphic design studio in Denver told me to block off Sundays completely. No emails, no sketching, no client calls no matter what. I thought it would kill my momentum but after 3 months my brain actually rests now. Has anyone else tried a full day off and felt guilty about it at first?

Unpopular take: I'll take a pneumatic DA over an electric one any day for blocking

Tried the Festool ETS EC 150 on a fender repair last week and went right back to my old Hutchins air sander because the electric one bogs down way too fast under heavy pressure.

Found out Dark on Netflix took 2 years to plan the first season

I was reading an interview with the creators on some German film site and they said they mapped out all 3 seasons before they even shot episode 1. That blew my mind because the show is so confusing already. They had a 900 page document just for the timeline. Makes me wonder how many shows actually do that kind of prep work. Has anyone else read about crazy pre-production for a show they loved?

Debate: Should you use a VPN on public wifi or not?

I always thought using a VPN at coffee shops was a no-brainer, but after testing 3 different ones at a Starbucks in Austin, my connection got 5 times slower and one site flagged me as a bot. Some guys online say free wifi is fine if you stick to HTTPS sites only. What's your take on this whole VPN or no VPN thing for public networks?