{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://hypersubject.net/entries/2026/04/charging-my-battery",
  "path": "/entries/2026/04/charging-my-battery",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-26T15:51:17.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:32534e3a5wza2m3omyuflhm3/site.standard.publication/3mnmnwcnftk2i",
  "tags": [
    "weekly-update"
  ],
  "textContent": "Sunday reflection on the passing week.\n\nI charged my car battery! This might sound unimportant to you, but it was a\nbig deal for me. My father was a handyman and I helped him a lot on different\nprojects throughout my childhood. So in theory I have a good grasp of how to use\ntools. But it was not enough. One also needs to be willing to do this kind of\nstuff, which I was not. My experiences of doing projects at home with my father\nprimarily taught me that a project never goes according to plan. There are\nalways edge cases that lead you away from the happy path, and it's always easier\nto hire someone else to be responsible for them. But more and more I feel like\nthe immortal insight of Ozan Akyol, a Turkish comedian, is spot on: \"You call an\nexpert. They come and you immediately realize that they're just another guy.\"\n\nThings didn't go according to plan this time either. The charger I bought\nrequired the battery to be removed from the car. So I needed to find a socket\ntool for that. Then I needed to figure out how to use the damn tool. Then I\nneeded to figure out how to actually charge the battery at home. Doing so was\nanxiety-inducing. Can it suddenly catch fire? Will there be acid fumes slowly\ndestroying my lungs? My brain habitually overindexes on failure modes. I think\nthis makes me a good engineer but at the same time prevents me from doing novel\nthings.\n\nAnyway, I did it. The car works now. I now know how to remove the battery,\ncharge it, and put it back. I improved my practical knowledge by doing the\ndamn thing with my hands. This is how you build phronesis, right? With this\nknowledge I'm better equipped for the future even if I decide to delegate the\ntask to someone else.\n\nI attribute some of this achievement to my practice of sculpting. Ten years of\nsolely building in the digital realm didn't help me grow confidence in working\nwith my hands. But with sculpting I feel like I'm building this confidence. It\nfeels nice.\n\nSpeaking of sculpting, my first real sculpture, Syzygy, is completed and due\nfor molding and casting this week. I will exhibit it on May 16 at OtonomArt. I\nsuspect (hope) at least one person is going to ask what syzygy means. The term\nhas too many interpretations and usages—gnosticism, Jung, CCRU... I want to\nwrite a post here about it so I can be prepared to talk about it there.\n\nIf you're reading this post and have means to be in Istanbul on May 16,\nconsider yourself invited to the exhibition.\n\ndelegating a task you don't know how to perform yourself.\nThis is a principle of Lightcone, the company(?) behind\nLessWrong and Lighthaven. I don't think it's a scalable principle in the context\nof a company, but for this kind of general maintenance it's a good principle to have.",
  "title": "charging my battery"
}