Oh man, I felt this in my bones. I read a piece from a chef a while back where he said the same thing, that he thought sous vide was for rich guys who couldn't cook, then he watched a guy at a steakhouse nail 60 filets in one dinner service without a single one coming back. That story stuck with me because it's not about the machine making better food than a skilled cook, it's about the machine making sure every plate is the same when you're getting slammed and there's no room for error. I used to roll my eyes at the price tag too, figured it was just hype for people who wanted to feel fancy in their own kitchen. But hearing how it saves your butt when you've got a hundred things going at once changed how I looked at it. It's less a gimmick and more like having an extra set of hands that never screws up.

That Phoenix reader deserves a medal for efficiency, one word and it did more damage than any long angry email ever could. I write for a small fishing report list and a guy named Dale told me my "seasonal reflections" section sounded like a greeting card written by a microwave. Open rates dropped to 18 percent that month and I had no clue why until he said that. Turns out people can smell it fast, like day old fish, and they just stop opening instead of complaining. Your fix is the right one though, use the model for ideas and write the actual human parts yourself, because the second you hand over the voice the whole thing falls apart.