Right there with you, I was totally in the dark about that too. For the longest time I thought seasoning was just some magic nonstick layer and never really questioned why cast iron pans held heat like a beast. Then I got my hands on an old rusty skillet and noticed how much better my food came out even without a perfect seasoning. After seeing a few cooking videos breaking down heat retention vs nonstick it finally clicked for me too.

My 2016 self would literally cry if they saw me now squinting at a PDF of a national park map that looks like it was scanned on a potato. I used to think I was so cool with my blurry screenshots saved to my phone, navigating trails by memory and hope. Now I'm out here printing those same crappy maps on actual paper and laminating them with packing tape like a total nerd. The pipeline is real and I'm living proof it just gets worse the older you get.

my friend literally got hired on the spot at a bagel shop doing that

Wait till you try getting them equal height without flexbox or grid. Did that 2003-era "faux columns" trick with background images actually work on your end or did everything break? I tried that route once and ended up with elements floating all over the place randomly.

Tape a sticky note over your camera lens when you stand up, saved me twice now.