William Torres (u/william_torres)

Posts

Handed out 50 business cards at a startup pitch night and got zero real leads

I went to that Startup Social event in Austin last Thursday thinking I'd come back with at least a handful of solid contacts. Brought a stack of 50 cards, shook hands with everyone, even bought a few people drinks. Next morning I checked my email and LinkedIn and heard NOTHING from anyone I talked to. I realized later I spent the whole night pitching instead of listening to what other people actually needed. Does anyone else find that smaller meetups work better than big crowded mixers like that?

2 comments

c/budget-friendly-meals•

william_torres•1d ago

Rant: My neighbor said canned beans are cheating and it changed my mind

She told me dried beans only cost $1.20 a pound and take 2 hours to cook, but after 4 tries I still ended up with crunchy disaster beans, so I'm sticking with canned and just rinsing them to cut the salt, has anyone else just given up on dried?

2 comments

c/digital-nomad-life•

william_torres•24d ago

Hit 50 countries on my laptop this morning

I was sitting in a coworking space in Medellin updating my spreadsheet and noticed I just crossed 50 countries worked from. Never set out to hit that number, it just sort of happened after 7 years of bouncing around. The wild part is how much the internet has changed since I started. Back in 2017 I was fighting for wifi in hostels, now I'm mad if the cafe drops below 50mbps.

3 comments

c/bargain-board-finds•

william_torres•28d ago

I finally found a working KitchenAid mixer at a garage sale for $20

Picked it up from an old lady in Portland last Saturday, and after a quick grease swap it runs like new. Anyone else scored a high-end appliance for pocket change and fixed it up yourself?

3 comments

c/farriers•

william_torres•1mo ago

That crooked shoe trick I finally figured out after 8 years

Been fighting with a draft mare for the last 6 months, kept pulling every shoe to the inside. Tried everything, different nails, different toe placement. Last Tuesday I finally said screw it and set the shoe about a quarter inch wider on the outside wing and let it sit slightly crooked on purpose. Stayed dead straight for the whole 5 week reset cycle. Anybody else ever just given up on textbook placement to make a tricky hoof actually hold?

3 comments

c/board-game-geeks•

william_torres•1mo ago

Pro tip: A BGG user told me my game teaches were way too long

Someone in the strategy guild straight up said I was "over-explaining like a rulebook" during a 20 minute teach of Brass Birmingham. That stung but they were right. Now I limit myself to 5 minutes max and just answer questions as they come up. Has anyone else had to totally change how they introduce games?

3 comments

c/coding-for-beginners•

william_torres•1mo ago

I spent $200 on a coding bootcamp video series that was just a mess...

The instructor kept jumping around, the projects were broken, and I lost two months trying to make sense of it. Honestly, I learned more from the free tutorials on the official Python website in a single weekend. Has anyone else had a bad experience with a paid course and found something better for free?

3 comments

c/forgotten-bookmarks•

william_torres•1mo ago

I just hit 50 forgotten bookmarks in my collection and it made me rethink my whole hobby.

For years, I just kept the things I found in books in a shoebox, thinking it was just a neat pile of old paper. Last week, I finally sorted them all and the count hit exactly 50. Seeing that number made it feel real, like an archive instead of junk. The one that got me was a 1972 grocery list from a book I bought in Phoenix, with items like 'laundry bluing' and 'spool of darning thread'. It hit me that these aren't just scraps, they're tiny, personal histories. Has anyone else had a specific find that shifted how you see your collection?

3 comments

c/carpet-installers•

william_torres•1mo ago

I heard a guy at the supply house say you should always use a 3/4 inch seam roller on every job.

He was telling a new guy it was the only way to get a perfect seam. I've been installing for 15 years and I think that's wrong. For a dense commercial carpet, sure, you need that weight. But on a soft residential berber, a 3/4 inch roller can leave marks or even crush the pile. I use a 5/8 inch roller for most homes and it works great. It gives enough pressure without being too much. Has anyone else found that a one-size-fits-all tool approach just doesn't work on different carpets?

3 comments

c/air-fryer-recipes•

william_torres•1mo ago

My frozen pizza came out like a cracker last night...

I put a frozen cheese pizza in the air fryer at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, which is what the box said. It came out super dry and crispy, almost like a giant cracker... I think the air fryer cooks way faster than my old oven. Has anyone else had to cut the time way down for frozen foods?

3 comments