This early spring under Covid-19

I once read on the internet that Stripe, a software company, part of their recruitment is dedicated to remote candidates. They are not only looking for talents where the physical office locates. Rather, they look for talents globally. As a software platform, they believe in opening the door to global talent is the key to success. Therefore, these employees know from day one, they are not going to see their colleagues every day, face to face, with the interval of a couple of months.

Sounds familiar, right? This is thousands of million people’s new norm under the impact of Covid-19 around the world. But this has long been many other’s daily practices. Freelancers, self-employers, start-up workers, even students who are at the very last few months of their thesis, work from home. Working from home could sometimes be a privilege, a safeguard to your work-life balance, especially if you must go to the office every day in some circumstances.

I am not trying to minimize the threat and pain that the Covid-19 situation has cost us. I know many of people do not have the privilege I have. I have a job, a roof, internet access and am still healthy and able to type down these words. The intention of this article is to propose the attention switch from the rising number of global infection or death rate to something else. Something reflective and productive to our current situation. There are many great online sources that are inspiring to help us get the best out of the current time, and help us think about the future. I am sharing some of them below.

Our now shapes tomorrow

I don’t know what does the word “future” mean to you at the very moment. It might be the next time you go on grocery shopping, the day that the country measures are finally lifted, the day we can meet with family again, or the time where the whole world finally overcomes this crisis…etc. We are still at the down turn. Lots of things are uncertain. We try to survive every day and wait and see how the wave drives us. At the same time hope for the better.

Yet, the future is now. The way we deal with today shapes tomorrow. Economist Tyler Cowen has an interesting interview episode with Russ Roberts in which they talked about what kind of economic impact might Covid-19 bring to us. Technology-wise, for instance. Because the whole world has gone online, our attachment to today’s communication technology has drastically increased. The communication technology evolves quickly and at the same time, people pour in massive amount of creativity to stay connected and entertained. Our social life after Covid-19 is probably going towards two extremes in the technology aspect. On the one hand, more activities are offered with online options that are far more mature and advanced than before. On the other hand, the irreplaceable offline activities are going to be more engaging and fascinating than ever before.

Listen to the whole episode.

Which path do we take?

Even though our world might seem to be ever more connected than before, our realities are divided.

I travelled to Taiwan early January this year. At the airport in Hong Kong, while waiting for transfer, the TV news and airport PA constantly warned all the travellers about this mysterious virus and asked those with similar symptoms to report to the airport authorities immediately. A few weeks after I went back to Europe, things went on normally for another 1,5 months, until the first case was spotted in the Netherlands. While checking in with friends and family in Taiwan, looking at the raising number in China and other European countries every day, the world I live in and the world I get my information from are so separated by their realities.

There aren’t any unified measurement and not a best practice (yet, there are better ones such as Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea) until we all overcome this crisis. Countries struggle between the collapse of economy and the deadly threat of public health. In midst of this crisis, Yuval Noah Harari pointed out that the path we choose today to fight the crisis might and possibly will shape the world after this virus war. Choosing between empowered citizens and total surveillance is the fine line between a trusted society and a dictatorship. Even though the message might both be conveyed through the interest of public health and the economic benefit. Countries can choose to form allies to aid one another in needs, and trust that forming a global rescue network is stronger than nationalists blocking the ways of a possible (and rare) global solidarity.

I can recommend this article of Yuval Noah Harari. As it provides us with another humanistic lens to look at how our governments deals with the Covid crisis and what the consequences might cost us in the near future.

We need to make a choice. And what we choose and how we act will shape our reality after the crisis.

Read the whole article here.

Opportunity in the time of disruption

Now we are all home – mostly not out of our own will. Not for work-life balance but for live-saving’s sake. If we are still healthy, sane and accumulating some extra free time, perhaps it’s time to make some new changes. The time of disruption could be the time of new opportunity. The question is, how do we spot new opportunities and how do we seize them?

This type of home-lifestyle might still last for a few months, if we are lucky. Days pass by as normal. Weekend seems to be dull. Why not try out some things that you’ve always wanted to do but never had time for. Such as writing. Learn an instrument. Study a language. Find a hobby for yourself. For instance, the Dutch government makes a major measure update every 4 weeks. That’s a month time perfectly suitable to form a new habit. Studies show that if you work on something for 30 days, it’s more likely that you can make that into a long-term habit.

Something you always wanted to change? Try it now. Some routine that you want to form or get rid of? Now might be a good time.

Watch this amazing TED talk about get better at something in 30 days.

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Last but not least, as it’s usually put, our world is changing faster than ever before (NPR has an interesting episode about IF the world is actually changing faster now than before? Listen to this episode). Humanity and the whole world are forced into a massive social experiment we rarely have. Half of world population stays home. Transportation is slowing down probably for the first time after the industrial revolution. While the world is dealing with the crisis, health care-wise and economic-wise, the nature actually has the time to take a break from all the aggressive progression of human activities. Streets quiet down. Skies clear out. Forests get to breathe. Oceans cool down. What if, after this epidemic, we can reflect as human beings, how to rebuild our world more sustainably, by collectively sacrificing a little of our freedom and our “right” to get whatever we want and wherever we like? We also have threatening issues such as climate change to tackle. Scientists have long warned us to act now if it’s yet too late. Perhaps the way we structure our economic needs a different direction. If this is a chance to remodel our world and our future, how can we get the most out of it?

I don’t have an answer. I am neither an expert in any of the field related to public health or politics. But I wish, as a reader on the internet, there are more of these aspects to be shared, discussed, researched, and eventually realized.