Into the Fold
Some of you might remember the Book Nook that I assembled earlier this year over the course of a week. For those of you who don’t remember—this thing had hundreds of small pieces and instructions that would make IKEA furniture assembly look like a walk in the park.
Well, since working on countless other projects over the last few months I’ve noticed that assembling the Book Nook has had a long-lasting effect on me. It’s made me far more patient as well as making me pay closer attention to detail. I have to admit this is a far more relaxing state to be in than getting yourself worked up by the challenges and frustrations of home projects. I’m filling up my swear-jar far less than before.
I can remember my father assembling things when I was younger. He was a mechanical wizard but he didn’t like to read instructions so he would invariably get into the weeds so to speak. All varieties of "Effenheimers", "dirty-sunnava-b*tches", and "stupid b@stards" filled the air like enormous flocks of migratory birds whenever dad tackled a project. Both my brother and I inherited this trait from my dad (hence my swear jar). But I’m convinced that The Book Nook has somehow rewired my brain in a way in which my swear jar may start collecting dust.
I bought a rear rack for my Brompton folding bike and after watching a few how-to videos decided to set about tackling the installation yesterday. Now I’ve been working on bicycles since I was about six years old but the Brompton is a completely different animal.
Everything on the Brompton is smaller, parts have tighter tolerances, and working on it is infinitely more complex. The bike is engineered to ride like a full size bike but take up the space of a piece of carry-on luggage when folded. This means when doing any adjustments or additions you always have to take into account how they will affect the process of folding.
Another valuable lesson the Book Nook taught me was to set a project aside when I start to feel frustration creeping in. I reached this point yesterday. I got about 80% done with the rear rack installation and discovered the bike chain was threaded through the frame improperly. So I decided it was wise to stop there and I’ll finish up today. I’ll keep the swear jar close at hand just in case I relapse but it might be time to swap it out for a smaller version. So many of life’s challenges seem easier if we just hit pause and take a beat.
RoboTaxi
Tesla took a huge leap forward in autonomous driving this past Sunday when it rolled out limited Robotaxi service in Austin, TX. Like most new things in our world today, Sunday's launch was either a resounding success or a complete failure depending on which influencer or mainstream media outlet you listen to.
Predictably, most mainstream media outlets are spinning their coverage of this towards the negative direction (as they typically do with all things related to Tesla). But after watching several videos and reading a few articles I’m nearly convinced that Tesla has cracked Level 4 autonomy. If this is the case, the world of transportation is about to change in a big way. Haters will continue to hate but I’d be sweating bullets if I were Uber, Lyft, or Waymo. The millions of Teslas currently on the road will be capable of full autonomous driving overnight once Unsupervised Self-Driving is rolled out as an over-the-air update to the masses. It’s only a matter of time.
All for now. Thanks for reading.
