That line about the hook telling you before your eyes catch up really got me. I bet it's because your hands feel the sway through the controls way faster than your brain processes what you're seeing, so the hook is basically your nervous system talking to you. Weird to think some of the best safety tech we have is just paying attention to our own body instead of a screen.

That's not a price, that's an apology" hit me hard because I did the same thing with my design work, charging $45 an hour for two years while telling myself I was building experience. When I finally bumped it to $95, I braced for angry emails and got nothing but yes from almost everyone. The fear was way bigger than the actual loss.

Kept mine going for about three years now and the four month thing tracks with everything else in life that actually matters. Nobody tells you that learning guitar, getting in shape, or being married gets good after the boring part you want to quit. The blogs sell the fast version because slow doesn't get clicks, but a starter is basically a pet that has to get sick and weird before it turns into something useful. Day 9 you were probably smelling the bad bacteria dying off, that's the whole point, it has to cycle through the ugly stage. My starter got way better after I stopped messing with it every day and just let it sit and do its thing, which honestly says a lot about most problems. Starting fresh every few months is like restarting a video game every time you die, you never get past level one.