Very good. Win win for all
To be fair, youāre the one deciding to make this personal. Youāre taking their blunt statements about your approach as some kind of statement about your character. Theyāre two completely different things. @Innocentbystander has admitted himself that he has tried dumb things and learned a lot of lessons the hard way. That doesnāt make him a dumb person. We all do stupid stuff. Heās called some of my ideas dumb (or something to that effect). I donāt believe that he thinks Iām an idiot. Once or twice I may have acted dumb, because I ignored the advice given. But that was my choice, and my lesson to learn.
Running a business, heck, simply being self employed is tough. For the most part, people here (and on most industry forums) are actually trying to make otherās journeys easier, by learning from someone elseās mistakes.
Not all advice is going to be one-size-fits-all. We get to choose what suggestions we decide to follow. And we get to weigh the pros and cons of the options before us. But the way we react to advice we disagree with matters. That is what people begin to judge our character by. We can act like a know-it-all hotshot and tell someone their advice is completely invalid. Or we can tactfully reply, āthank you for the advice, but Iām not sure it applies to my situation.ā Or, we can simply say nothing and go on our merry way.
And this little āsermonā Iāve written doesnāt just apply to you. Itās a good idea for all of us to check our egos at the door and realize that what someone says about our ideas, is almost never an intentional dig at our character, or even our level of experience.
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Well said, Alex.
I hear what you are saying Alex, but i think thereās a flip side to that as well.
Years ago i realized that leaving snarky comments often resulted in a bunch of unnecessary time wasting drama, for all parties involved. So i stopped, and used all the resulting free time to look up pictures of Vanna White on vacation. These days, when i get the itch to throw shade, i start thinking about them high waisted bikini bottoms, and get delightfully distracted. But thatās just me, and sometimes even them hot pink shorts arent enough to keep me from throwing a few zingers.
My analysis:
Crankypants Mcgillicutty went a little heavy on the snark, and caught John off guard. John asked for a better suggestion, and got hit with more snark. Then Steve weighs in and makes a big fumble by implying that John lacks knowledge because he is talking about something that doesnāt exist, except it does. Then John takes a few swings.
I rule this one in favor of John.
John dont sweat it man, itās just the price of admission here. Did you get the job done? Did the DS start working? If not, did you take the gun off the 150ā hose and see if it would pull chems, like IBS suggested?
Now if youāll excuse me, im off to buy a vowel.
(And please tell me im not the first to make an Irritable Bowel Syndrome reference. 
)
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I read this twice trying to figure out who migillacutty was before figuring it might be me. I came here as innocent bystander because after 10 years at ptstate contractors were always calling me wanting work or advice. I planned to stay in the shadows here. Lol. That didnāt last. IBS
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Donāt worry about not getting the info you need here ā¦look up the Idaho painter on YouTube he will teach you everything you need to know about destroying peopleās property !!! Everyone knows the blue and pink tips exist ā¦that doesnāt mean they should be used ā¦all these guys have spent years trying to get where they are and are gracious enough to help us small guys ā¦who cares if they make fun of us alittle bit itās part of learning for Free !!! I went through two apprenticeships ā¦bricklayer and also a millwrightā¦ those guys were ruthless but guess what I have skills to last me a lifetime my sonās lifetime ā¦let these guys help you and calm down
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Thank you @tireshark I was beginning to think everyone was just huge d*** riders over here. But yes i ended up showing up to the first job anyway, I wasnāt getting the results I wanted, I tried using a crappy car wash soap applicator but it just wasnāt reaching the peaks I needed and it was wasting a ton of time so I came home, ordered a Mjet, and rescheduled for next Friday. So hopefully that will work out, thanks for asking. Also I didnāt get the downstream tips that Steve pointed out (Iāve looked into them before he linked them btw) and I decided not to get them because if I need to upgrade my downstream injector then thereās no point in investing in tips that wonāt work regardless
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Mjet is great but itās not going to give you super reach. 2 story house maybe, but anything over that you will need an 0030, based on your machine size. They are only about 4 bucks so much cheaper also.
He does lack knowledge, thatās obvious. Thatās not a slam against a person to say or observe that. Itās not as though I wasnāt offering help to him. I was trying to get him to step back and consider the idea of scheduling jobs before you even have your equipment set up correctly. What universe is that bad advise in? He even admitted that he made himself look bad by showing up and not being able to do the job. I offered that advise because I did the same thing once or twice and itās embarrassing and costly.
I never made fun of you. I said you had a cheap-o unit (pump). The reason I know that is because 5 years ago I had a similar pump with built in injector and built in unloader made by AR. I used it for one season before it crapped out. I kept the motor and upgraded the pump. My unit would not draw soap through more than 50ā ft of hose either and when I showed up to a job and couldnāt wash the 2nd story in the back of the house and didnāt know why I couldnāt get it to work, I looked like a moron in front of the customer.
You might want to stop and think for a second that there are people who are offering help because they have walked down the same path before you. I might offer some help but Iām not going to try to phrase it perfectly to protect someoneās fragile ego.
Thatās where we are different Steve. Iām delicate. Like a floating butterfly on a warm spring day wafting thru the dandelions. I try to phrase my comments to inspire and evoke a sense of self worth. Kinda stimulate the ego and bring out the inner child like nature that begs to absorb knowledge and learn. It would behoove you to emulate me. Beacon of kindness, generosity and political correctness.
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You left out the last part of my sentence, which changed the point of it.
Saying that he lacked knowledge wasnāt the issue, as even John himself admitted that he lacked knowledge in his first post. I said you made a fumble by implying that he lacked knowledge ābecause he was talking about something that doesnt exist, when it doesā.
Your intent was well meaning, but by this point John was approaching tilt, and when you told him pink tips dont exist, and in that context, it muddied up a conversation that was already turning brown. Hence John jumping off the top rope with a metal chair.
Itās no big deal thoughā¦ like i said, it was just a fumbleā¦ so thatās only like 2 free throws or whatever.
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You are correct, I have never seen those before and sometimes I forget that people find things that our industry suppliers donāt carry. And, since he keyed in on only that one part of the whole paragraph I wrote it letās me know that he is more interested in his own ego than he is learning. I canāt do anything about that though. I learned through his reply to be careful assuming things, which is more than I can say for him.
You are my Internet hero and I can only make a feeble attempt to emulate your humility and wisdom. Like the Dalai Lama of pressure washing you are. 
Hey, I resemble that statement!
But seriously, if it was a dig at me, I deserve it. I can come off as a passive aggressive, self-righteous jerk sometimesā¦ 
No dig at anyone. Just humor
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I think itās a bit much to use this discussion to assume Johnās ego and desire to learn. I mean, you keyed in on only the first half of my sentence earlier, but that doesnāt necessarily mean that you have ego problems, does it? No. So lets give him the same courtesy.
But even after the pink tip stuff started, he still was asking for suggestions on what tips to use, and thanked you for your input. Only after it continued did he crank it up, and honestly, if you read the discussion from his perspective, it was fairly understandable IMO.
Look, iāve been in his spot before on other forumsā¦ whether itās plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etcā¦ so while i would rather stay out of it, i hate to leave him hanging out to dry on his own Sometimes communities like this are a bit touchyā¦ and sometimes text discussions get taken the wrong way, by both sidesā¦ and if a new guy fires back at a regular, then he often gets the wrath of the entire forum, and the next thing you know itās The Jerry Springer show with guest host Morton Downey Jr. going on.
Instead of continuing to throw jabs around, why dont we all just agree that this was mostly a misunderstanding, call a mulligan, and save the hostilities for when the lawncare guys come around. Yeah?
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I will gladly admit when I am wrong. And the whole reason I posted a question on this forum is because there are areas where I lack knowledge. And apparently @Steve you even admitted yourself at one point you lacked the same knowledge and still showed up on jobs and embarrassed yourself. Stuff like that has to happen for me to learn. Now I know. So until then, Iāll use an m jetā¦and I did order the 4 conjoined tips from pressure tek, so when I get the money to invest in a better pump then Iāll be good to go. thereās a lot I still need to learn but Iām getting there. Iām not going to just put my whole business on hold until I learn every bit of info I can possibly fit in my huge ego filled head. Doesnāt matter how book smart I get sometimes You just gotta get out there and learn by actually trying this stuff outā¦But if you wanna sit back and justify yourself and pretend you werenāt being a prick and you were just trying to help then fine by me, to me that screams and ego issue but what do I know.
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