Wait, are you SERIOUSLY comparing scrolling through a red light to being a safety driver for a self-driving car? Those are two completely different things. The safety driver's job is to watch the road and take over if something goes wrong, not check Instagram. If I'm paying for a test ride or trusting my safety to these events, I want the driver paying attention. When you're stopped at a red light, the car is stationary and you know the context. On a test track, the car could make a weird move at any second and that driver needs to be ready. It just feels lazy and dangerous to me, like nobody's really taking the responsibility seriously.

Makes a world of difference with tricky materials like old plaster.

Agree with you completely @fiona_lane. I had a new guy once spend ten minutes trying to start a chainsaw that didn't have any fuel in it. Just kept pulling the cord over and over, getting mad at the saw. I finally walked over, pointed at the empty tank, and he turned red as a tomato. Another time I watched a trainee try to force a stuck window open by shoving a crowbar through the glass instead of just checking the latch first. You can explain stuff a hundred times in training but until they mess it up on a real call, it doesn't stick. I think that's just how some people learn, you know? They gotta feel stupid once before it clicks.

Hold on though, that framing square probably worked well because it was already broken in and zeroed out, not because old tools are ALWAYS better. I'd still test a vintage square for squareness before trusting it.

@michael_bennett11 that shelf story hits too close to home. I did the same thing with a curtain rod last year, used a laser level and everything, still ended up with one side higher than the other. Ended up just stacking books on the sill to make it look intentional. At least your picture frame trick works better than my crooked curtains.