Read somewhere that gym workers say leg press is the worst for that.

The "plain pot method actually came out better" part is the real story here. People treat rice cookers like they're magic, but all they really do is hold a steady temp and shut off when the water's gone. A pot with a tight lid does the same thing if you just turn the heat down and leave it alone. Once you get the water ratio down, you never think about it again. The gadget just adds one more thing that can break.

Had a buddy who wrote short stories on his lunch breaks at a car wash, and he swore the soap smell was his secret weapon. He'd describe a sad scene as smelling like the pink foam drying on hot pavement, and it somehow made people cry. Weird but it worked. He said the trick was to stop trying to sound like a writer and just say what his hands and nose already knew. Kicker is he moved to an office job and his stuff went downhill for like a year. Called it the curse of the clean air.