Yeah, "Canva's the new ghosting buddy" is way too real. I read somewhere that a lot of clients think templates are "good enough" after seeing a few rounds of custom work, and they just disappear without saying anything. It's like they don't get the time we put into those three logos, which is honestly pretty disrespectful. @vera_robinson36 you're right, it's not rare anymore, I hear about this happening to designers all the time now. The worst part is they never even let you know they're going with someone else, so you just sit there checking your email for a week. It makes you question whether to even start a project without a deposit that covers that initial round of work.

My neighbor tried one of those meal kit services for a couple months and what ended up happening was she'd have this bag of fancy cheese that was supposed to go with some specific dish, but then life got in the way and she didn't cook that meal. That cheese wasn't something she could just toss into a sandwich because it was some weird herb-crusted thing that didn't match anything else. She ended up giving me half her boxes in the last week just so they wouldn't go to waste. I can see the appeal for people who are really disciplined about cooking every single meal, but for normal folks who have last minute plans or get tired, it seems like you're buying a problem.

Is quitting always the smart play though @the_elliot? Sometimes grit pays off.

Wait, is that really how rubber cables work though? I mean, the fraying happens inside the insulation, sure, but you can usually feel a bump or a soft spot before it actually breaks. I've had a few cables go bad over the years and you can tell something's wrong when it gets warm or the wire feels loose at the connector. Maybe it's just me, but I always check the ends and run my fingers down the cable to feel for any weird spots. That type of fraying builds up over time from bending and twisting, so it's not like it just appears overnight. I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it, but I feel like there are signs you can catch.

Man you're so right about this. It's like we all have this idea that life is a straight line and then reality hits you with a curveball and suddenly that boring safety net looks like genius. The older generation didn't just stumble onto this stuff they lived through enough bad times to know you can't predict everything.