18/ I'll just wrap up by summarizing: Don't start your cooking journey with easy recipes, go for challenging ones because success will boost you and failure won't shock you.
Pay attention to cause-and-effect in the kitchen, and try new tools if things aren't working out. And, don't avoid failure!

17/ you weren't paying attention to what was happening when you cook. You might think you're the problem, when you're not. Try different tools sometimes and see if that improves your results! Nothing is ever one-size-fits-all, especially in cooking.

So, yeah, I don't want to ramble on much longer.

16/ the other pan, though. The other pan doesn't care if the temperature is higher or lower than normal, that only affects how long it takes them to brown, not whether they get crispy.
So sometimes, it's not your skill or your recipe that's the problem, it's your tools! But you might miss that if

15/ crispy skin on them. I've tried cooking them at higher and lower temperatures than normal, turning them more often and less often, tried adding more butter or oil than normal, nothing seems to help. They cook, they get soft, and they taste fine, but they're never crispy.
That's not a problem in

14/ the potatoes in a mixture of melted butter, olive oil, and various seasonings. It all gets dumped in the hot pan and fried, the pieces being frequently turned over to brown all sides.. In the stainless steel pan, even with the butter and oil involves, the potatoes stick, and they don't form a

13/ the same size and shape, and they're even the same brand. One is stainless steel, very heavy, thick bottom. The other is non-stick coated and a pretty consistent thickness on all sides, with only a little bit thicker of a bottom layer.
I have a potato recipe my family loves that involves tossing

12/ with the pan, which is how it gets crispy!

You don't necessarily need me, or anyone else, to tell you that, though. Your most valuable tool in the kitchen is your own senses. You have to pay attention and observe the cause and effect you're creating.

For example, I have 2 pans that are about

11/ should definitely get if you don't already have, won't be serrated. You want a smooth blade and keen edge for that one, because if you want something like potatoes to be pan-fried crispy, you don't want a bunch of tiny ridges on the potato's surface because less of the potato will make contact

10/ that some knives cut certain items easier than others. Tomato knives will have very fine, very sharp serration, to cut through the skin and flesh without mangling it. They're also often narrow blades so there's less surface area for the wet tomato guts to stick to.
The standard "chef knife" you

9/ But that's baking. Baking is a much stricter science than cooking. Getting good at a few basic skills can greatly impact your cooking outcomes without needing a chemistry degree.

Knife skills are important, not just so you don't hurt yourself, but also just because it makes life easier to know

8/ ingredients affect the outcome, it can be really hard to understand where you went wrong. Some of the problems can be ameliorated by reading about bread making techniques and the differences between types of bread. You need a foundation to build on that isn't just following a recipe or technique.

7/ matter of experience. There's many ways for bread to turn out badly. Underproved, overproved, underbaked, overbaked, overworked, underdeveloped, dead yeast, over-active yeast, hard crust, soggy bottom, crust too pale or too dark, just to name a few. If you don't know how your techniques and

6/ success too, especially in the kitchen. I just think you learn different things from success and failure, and they both have their traps.

Failure can be a trap if you don't understand how you failed and you don't have the tools to pull apart the results to find the answer. Some of that is just a

5/ I know failure is scary, and you've probably heard a million times, "you learn more from failure than success," but it probably never made you feel better. I get why. Saying you don't learn as much from success feels very demotivating. I also don't think it's true. I think you learn plenty from

4/ but you totally DID! I'm proud of you, you're proud of you, this is great! Let's do it again!

I think the most important thing to remember, in cooking and everything else in life, is to not try and AVOID failure. You can't. It will creep up on you when you're at your highest and your lowest.

3/ lower than an easy recipe. If you fail at a challenging recipe, you're just like, "Ah, well, it was a tough recipe, so of course it's gonna take a few practice tries to get right!"

But if you SUCCEED at a challenging recipe, it's a major confidence boost. Look at you! You didn't think you could,

2/ or measure something incorrectly. Failing at an "easy" or "no-fail" recipe is going to be a blow to your confidence! You might be like, "aw, man, if I even mess THIS up, why even try? :("

Conversely, if you start trying to learn with a challenging recipe, the stakes are, counter-intuitively,

I'd be surprised if you found any official comment on it, but at least we know it's affecting other people and not some kind of weird accidental spam restrictions (probably).