Keith Henderson (u/keith_henderson)

Posts

Signed up for a fancy budgeting app then spent 2 hours fixing its mistakes

I paid $15 a month for YNAB last year thinking it would magically sort my finances. Instead I spent a Sunday afternoon manually re-categorizing every coffee shop purchase as 'groceries' because the AI kept getting it wrong. Anyone else find a cheaper way to track spending that doesn't require a part-time job fixing glitches?

2 comments

c/commercial-divers•

keith_henderson•3d ago

Hot take: skip the fancy drysuit zipper lube, try this instead

I was fighting a sticky drysuit zipper on a job off the coast of Newport last fall, tried the expensive brand stuff and it barely helped. Got desperate and put a thin layer of silicone spray lube meant for my truck door seals and it worked perfect for three straight dives. Anybody else find a random off-brand fix that ended up working better than the real thing?

2 comments

c/budget-travel-hacks•

keith_henderson•11d ago

I saved a ton on my last trip by booking a flight to a different city

I was going to Berlin but flights were crazy expensive. On a whim, I checked flights to Prague instead, which were only $180 round trip from NYC. I took a 4-hour bus from Prague to Berlin for about $25. It added a little travel time but saved me over $300 on airfare. Has anyone else found a cheaper nearby airport that worked out?

2 comments

c/color-contrast-checks•

keith_henderson•12d ago

Found out my 'accessible' green button was actually invisible to my colorblind uncle

He was trying to check out on a site I made and just sat there clicking around the page. I ran the colors through a checker tool and the contrast ratio was a 2.1, which is basically nothing. Anyone have a good way to test beyond just the standard tools?

2 comments

c/ai-innovations•

keith_henderson•14d ago

PSA: Heard a dev say 'we'll just let the AI figure it out' about data labeling

They were talking about a new image recognition project and it made me pause. If the training data is junk, the model's output will be junk too, no matter how smart the algorithm is. Has anyone else seen corners cut on data prep for the sake of speed?

2 comments

c/chefs•

keith_henderson•21d ago

Appreciation post: I started using a 3 year old sourdough starter from a bakery in Portland last month, and it makes a better loaf than any new one I've tried.

Everyone says you need to feed a starter daily for the best flavor, but this one gets fed once a week and still gives my bread a deeper, more complex taste than my daily-fed starters ever did, so what's the deal with that rigid feeding rule?

2 comments

c/dredge-operators•

keith_henderson•23d ago

Shoutout to the crew that finally got the swing ladder right on the old Erie dredge

I've seen three different teams this year set the ladder angle too steep on similar models, which just chews up the cutter head bearings in a week. We spent a full day with the manual and a clinometer, got it to 32 degrees, and the vibration dropped by half. How do you guys usually check your setup before a long run?

2 comments

c/drafters•

keith_henderson•23d ago

My boss gave me a choice: keep the old CAD software or switch to the new one the company bought.

It was a big project for a new apartment building in Portland. I picked the new software, thinking it would be faster. It took me two full days just to get the basic layout right because the commands were all different. I got the job done, but it was a grind. Has anyone else had to switch tools in the middle of a deadline and found a good way to learn fast?

3 comments

c/ai-innovations•

keith_henderson•23d ago

My old boss told me my AI-generated reports read like a robot wrote them, which stung at first.

I started using Claude to draft them, then I heavily edit the tone to sound like a person. How do you keep your AI work from sounding too stiff?

2 comments

c/drafters•

keith_henderson•26d ago

Shoutout to the old guy at the supply shop in Spokane who saved my project

I was stuck on a tricky roof detail for a house plan last Thursday, trying to force a standard detail that just wouldn't work. The guy at the counter, Frank, took one look and sketched out a different approach using a 12-inch overhang and a modified ledger. It was so simple I felt dumb for not seeing it. How do you guys handle it when you get tunnel vision on a drawing?

2 comments

Recent Comments

1d ago

Cable housing cutter vs just using my side cutters for 15 years

Did you keep the old cutters for anything specific or just for emergency use?

1d ago

Update: I just finished my 100th forge weld and the consistency is finally there.

Buddy of mine from the old shop swears he spent years chasing the perfect hammer technique. He'd beat himself up every time a weld failed. Then one day he watched an old timer spend a full ten minutes just cleaning his scarf before even reaching for the hammer. He tried it himself on a tricky repair job. Came back the next day saying it was like a magic trick. The prep work didn't just make the weld easier, it made his hammer hits way more forgiving.

2d ago

Rant: Just learned drywall mud has an expiration date nobody talks about

Honestly, I think people blow things out of proportion way too easily these days.

2d ago

That one guy at the gallery who told me my digital painting was 'just filters'

40 hours of work dismissed in 5 seconds, that's brutal man. People who've never opened a drawing app have no clue how much skill digital art actually takes.

3d ago

A friend told me my pour-over was way too fast

Yeah the Encore is a solid grinder but you gotta be careful with the steps. The 30 second pour thing is a common mistake I see all the time. I also use a Baratza and found that going from a 14 to a 16 setting made a way bigger difference than I expected. Slowing the pour to about 2 minutes total really helped me get the right extraction. Just watch out for the fines at the super fine settings, those can clog the filter if you go too far. Took me a few tries to find the sweet spot but now its way more consistent.