Man, your story hit me right in the wallet because I went through the EXACT same thing with my kitchen knives. Spent years using this flimsy $15 set from the grocery store that couldn't cut through a tomato without squishing it. Finally caved and bought one decent chef's knife and suddenly I'm chopping onions like a pro and not fighting the blade. Now I'm wondering what OTHER cheap stuff I've been putting up with for no reason. It's like once you feel the real difference, you can't go back to the junk.

Did you ever actually try the restaurant job before deciding, or was this all based on what you thought it would be like? Sometimes the night manager gigs come with a lot of drama and burnout that doesn't show up in the job listing. Plus dealing with drunk customers at 2am gets old real fast.

Old timer at the port of Houston gave me the exact opposite advice about five years back. He told me to let the tag line hang a little loose, let the swing brake work, and I've had zero clutch pack issues on my 5250L in four years of heavy lift work. Maybe your guy was right for the specific model you're running, but I've seen too many older operators stick to habits from the 70s that don't match today's hydraulics. They'll tell you one thing based on a crane they ran in 1982, but the computer controlled load charts on these new rigs are way different. I'd take that tip with a grain of salt and check the actual wear pattern on your rig instead of just trusting some old salt's gut feeling.

Did you try it on something really basic though like a for loop, I had it write me a whole Fibonacci sequence and it came out wrong.

It's like when restaurants started doing their own delivery instead of using DoorDash. You save on fees but now you have to hire drivers and handle complaints yourself. Same deal with your shop. You cut out the middleman but now you're the one finding customers instead of Etsy bringing them to you. Worth it in the long run if you can handle the extra hustle.