Ghosting apps is just ghosting with extra steps.

There's actually research on this. I remember reading about a study where people who talked out loud to themselves solved puzzles faster than people who stayed quiet. Something about how speaking forces your brain to put messy thoughts into order, and the act of hearing it back makes gaps jump out at you. Your roommate basically ran you through the poor man's version of what researchers call self-explanation. The weird part is it doesn't even matter if anyone is listening, or if the listener understands code. Your own ears do the work. Two years of calling it stupid and all you needed was Marcus standing there confused for 30 seconds.

My uncle did the same thing but about JFK, said the lone gunman debate was a treadmill and the real story was who benefited from the Warren Commission rushing it. I started keeping a simple log too, just a spiral notebook, writing down who broke each story and whether they had any skin in the game. The ones tied to a named source with a paper trail tended to survive past a week, and the ones built on "a guy who knows a guy" vanished. Your uncle Rick was pointing you at the boring stuff for a reason, because it actually stays checkable years later instead of just getting more confusing.