Noticed the same thing happens with the zoom ring too. On my phone I pinch and swipe without even thinking, but with the AE-1 I had to physically twist that lens and it slowed me way down. Last month at the Pearl I caught myself zooming with my feet instead, just stepping closer to a bench and a dog, and the shot turned out way more alive than anything my phone ever gave me. The weird part is the phone trained my eyes to see a whole scene at once, like a wide safety net, but film forces you to pick one thing and commit. That commit part is what makes the keepers.

Dig back into why it died before you blame the scale. Most cheap scales have a little rubber flap over the battery compartment, and if that flap gets wet from steam or a splash, it can short out and kill the reading mid-pour. I've had that happen with a $10 scale, and the fix was just drying it out and putting a tiny bit of electrical tape over the seam. So maybe your scale isn't dead, just moody. Check that before you toss it, or you'll be out another $9 and still have the same mess.