My hand mixer was the problem for ages. I’d beat the batter until it was shiny and smooth, and I’d get these dry, tall brownies every time. Switching to a wooden spoon and stopping while it still had some flour streaks made all the difference. They went from sad cake squares to that dense, sticky fudge texture I actually wanted.

Two days without stirring turned your starter into soup? That's a classic starter tantrum! Your bakery buddy's daily stir routine probably keeps the yeast from getting lazy. I mean, think about it, if you left a kid alone with candy, you'd get a mess too. My own neglect experiment ended with a layer of hooch that could strip paint. So maybe skip the internet magic and just give it a quick mix to avoid a science project disaster.

Wait, you need WIFI just to turn on a light now? That's actually insane (and kind of terrifying when you think about it). @sean_adams91 is totally right about adding pointless failure points, like my friend's smart fridge that locked him out during a router reset. That key fob backup is the only smart part of the whole deal, a simple thing that just works when the fancy system trips over itself.