idk man, at what point did you realize you were just collecting drives instead of actually organizing the mods? was it when you ran out of USB ports or when the third one showed up?

Right, people love the idea of it. They love watching outdoor shows and buying gear but the actual dirt and bugs part? That's where they check out. Two hundred nights is a serious number, you're living it not just visiting it for a weekend here and there. The smell of campfire and no shower thing is real, some people just can't handle that level of real. They want the highlight reel not the actual reel.

See I kinda disagree... having to run to the neighbor for help is way better than ending up in the ER with a knife wound over a $2 can of beans.

Actually that credit card method isn't great for modern CPUs. The whole point of thermal paste is to fill microscopic gaps, not to be a thin layer across the whole thing. Spreading it thin with a card can leave air bubbles and uneven coverage, especially if the cooler pressure pushes it around differently than expected. The pea size or even the tiny rice grain works better because the pressure from mounting the cooler naturally spreads it perfectly. Your grandma's light dab method probably worked fine for older chips with larger heat spreaders, but Ryzens have these tiny chiplets that need just enough paste in the right spot. Too many people overthink it honestly - just a small dot in the middle and let physics do the work.

Oh man, four hours at 160 is brutal! I feel your pain. That brisket stall is like when you're waiting for your coffee to brew in the morning - you know it'll happen eventually but it feels like forever. It's funny how wrapping saves so much time, kinda like how putting a lid on a pot of water makes it boil faster. I've noticed that same pattern in other stuff too, like when you're trying to finish a project at work and you just need one small shortcut to stop it dragging on forever.