My local grocery store's ratio jumped 50 percent in two years and nobody batted an eye.

Oh wow, that's rough but I gotta push back on something. The moderators question wasn't really about whether the author made both narrators unlikeable-it's more that Gone Girl is written so each narrator's version of events is deliberately skewed from the start. That debate getting personal instead of staying about the book is a shame, but the question itself was a pretty standard literary take.

Patience" had nothing to do with it, they just used better materials.

Haven't we all been sold on that whole 'railroad spike knife' fantasy at some point? I used to think they were like the ultimate DIY blade, something you could pass down to your grandkids. But after seeing that same kind of spark test at a local forge meet, it completely changed my mind. The guy there said the constant pounding from trains actually makes the steel brittle in spots and full of micro cracks. So yeah, they look cool hanging on a wall but I wouldn't trust one for any real camp work or cutting. Kind of a bummer since they seemed so tough.

Man, you're overthinking this. 1000 hours is barely scratching the surface if you've been drilling bad habits or just noodling around instead of actually working on technique.