The "stubborn about fire management" line hit home for me. I ran splits that were way too big for the first year on my rig and kept wondering why my temp graph looked like a heart monitor. The fix was dumb simple, split smaller and preheat the next stick on top of the firebox before it goes in. That alone cut my swings from 50 degrees down to maybe 15. Your 25 good cooks out of 100 is honestly a normal ratio for the first couple years, most guys just never write anything down so they never see it. One tip that helps me now, I mark each cook in my notes with a letter grade and only re-read the A and B ones when I'm planning a cook, the bad ones already taught me what they were gonna teach me. 100 cooks in two years is a lot of reps, and the fact that you went back and graded yourself means you're already past the part that trips most people up. What's the one thing you changed that made the biggest jump in quality?

That ghosting right before Thanksgiving is the real kicker, never trust a hire who bails when it matters most.