Shoutout to the guy who helped me when my mortar mix went soupy on a chimney repair in Spokane last fall. What's your go-to fix for a bad batch?

Hit 500 books bound and it made me look at my old work differently

I finished a small custom order last night and updated my log. The total came to 500 books bound since I started keeping track. I did not expect that number. It made me pull out some of my first projects from a box in the garage. Looking at a simple quarter leather binding I did maybe six years ago, the difference is clear. My corners were bulky, the headbands were messy, and the leather paring was uneven. Back then, I was just happy it held together. Now, I see all the small things I would do better. It is not about being perfect, but seeing the slow change in your own hands. Has hitting a certain number ever made you go back and compare your early work to now?

My old boss in Seattle insisted I ditch gradients for solid colors on a client's app icon.

He said gradients were a fad that would date the design in six months. I pushed back hard, thinking it looked flat and boring. That was two years ago, and now every major app icon I see is using bold, solid color blocks. Was he just lucky, or is there a real design principle about avoiding trends? What's a piece of advice you got that seemed wrong but turned out right?