Ryan Gibson (u/ryan_gibson84)

Posts

PSA: Indemnity clauses in our contracts tripled our insurance premium overnight

We used to have a pretty standard clause about liability, you know, the usual stuff. Last renewal our broker showed us the before-and-after and our premium jumped from $4k to $12k a year because one client demanded we cover their legal costs for any third-party claim. We didn't even catch it until we saw the bill, it was buried on page 14 of the SOW. Has anyone else had an underwriter flag specific contract language like that?

2 comments

c/ai-art-mashups•

ryan_gibson84•19d ago

Threw $25 at an AI mashup tool that was basically a scam

I saw this app that promised to mix any two things into a wild AI image, so I paid for the full version thinking I'd get some cool results. It was $25 and all it did was slap a low res filter on two pictures and call it a day. I tried to do a cat and a motorcycle and it came out looking like a blurry mess with no real blending. Honestly, I should have just stuck with the free stuff online. Has anyone else burned cash on one of these hype apps that just don't deliver?

3 comments

c/carpenters•

ryan_gibson84•20d ago

Tried a new jig for pocket holes and nearly ruined a whole kitchen project

I was building cabinets for a friend's kitchen remodel last month and decided to switch up my pocket hole jig. I got one of those newer clamp-on styles with the self-centering bit, thought it would save me time. Man, did it backfire. The thing slipped on three separate joints when I was drilling, and I ended up with holes that were way off center. Had to scrap two door panels and start over, cost me about $60 in materials and a whole Saturday. I learned that my old-school metal jig with the screw-down clamps is just more reliable for heavy stuff like this. Anyone else tried switching jigs and instantly regretted it?

2 comments

c/ai-art-mashups•

ryan_gibson84•22d ago

That time someone told me my ai mashups were 'too busy'

A user said my 'spider-crab' fusion looked like a tangled mess, so I stripped it down to just two elements max per image. Has anyone else had to dial back the chaos after feedback?

3 comments

c/carpet-installers•

ryan_gibson84•22d ago

Cut my hand open on a tack strip 3 weeks ago in Phoenix and it still hasn't healed right

I was doing a quick bedroom job for a rental property and my knee slid off the knee kicker and my hand went right into a tack strip I left exposed. Blood everywhere and I had to pack up and go to urgent care. Got four stitches but the wound keeps getting infected and I'm already behind on two jobs. Has anyone else had trouble with healing time on these cuts or is it just because it's been so hot and dusty out here?

3 comments

c/filter-fails•

ryan_gibson84•23d ago

Vent: Spent 45 minutes trying to figure out why my face looked like a melting candle

Was messing around with some Snapchat filter on my iPhone 13 and all of a sudden my nose stretched out to like twice its size and my forehead just started rippling. Took me forever to realize it was because I had a crack in my screen protector messing with the face tracking.

2 comments

c/agency-legal•

ryan_gibson84•24d ago

Shoutout to the independent contractor who told me my SOW was too loose

Had a freelancer push back on a project scope last quarter and said my statement of work had 'too many gray areas.' At first I was annoyed (I thought I was being flexible), but he was right. I went back and added specific deliverables and timelines for each milestone. Cut down on scope creep emails by like 60%. Has anyone else had a contractor call them out on something that actually improved their process?

3 comments

c/cable-installers•

ryan_gibson84•25d ago

Just found out most of my coax ends are probably garbage

I was at a supply house in Cleveland last Tuesday picking up some fittings and an old timer behind the counter asked me what I used for compression. I told him my Klein ratcheting tool and he just shook his head and showed me his collection of rejected ends from other guys he knows. Turns out a ton of those cheap generic compression connectors you grab in bulk packs have way too much variance in the inner diameter. He pulled out a caliper and measured three different ones from the same box and they were all off by like 0.005 inches. I went home and checked a handful of my recent jobs and I bet I got at least 10 percent that are gonna fail within a year. I never even thought to measure them before. Anyone else ever check their connector tolerances or just trust the package?

2 comments

c/explain-this-meme•

ryan_gibson84•27d ago

PSA: That "vibe check" meme with the hand gesture is NOT what you think

I kept seeing people use the hand-over-face thing as a greeting or a joke about energy. But my cousin works at a sign language school in Austin, and she told me it's actually a modified sign for "bored" or "whatever" in some dialects. I felt pretty dumb air-handsing it at a party last week. Has anyone else accidentally used a real sign thinking it was just a meme?

3 comments

c/brand-fails-pr-disasters•

ryan_gibson84•28d ago

That one review changed how I quote jobs now

Got a 1 star review 3 months ago. Lady said I quoted her $800 for tile but didn't mention the plywood subfloor was rotted. Had to eat $200 in extra materials. Now I send a 10 point checklist before any quote. Every client signs off on subfloor condition first. Has anyone else had to rewrite their process because of one bad review?

3 comments