COVID related brain dump here. You’ve been warned.
With the market I picked, experts serving audiences, I like to think it’s not (all) about the money. But the money matters. Stability matters, a continuous stream of options, leverage – it all puts you in a better position to do the important things.
But what’s relevant, and therefore important, is a moving target.
Everyone is different, everyone is the same
Maslow had it right.
We have very predictably watched people go from purchasing:
- base needs related products with the initial COVID panic (groceries, masks, gun ammo, mace)
- then work from home related things (monitors, lap tops, adapters)
- then things to occupy our kids (board games, toys wiped off of warehouse shelves)
- then hobbies related things (gardening tools, guitar strings)
Not that everyone is on the same page or even remotely having the same experience.
Lots of people I know have lost work. Ann has two schoolmates who’s fathers have died of COVID.
You have people’s mourning pre-COVID life coming out in weird ways combined with the new expected social acuity being something like knowing when not to talk about it because you don’t want to bum anyone out.
I can feel fine all day, and then suddenly get really angry and not know why, think about it, and then have a good idea.
While the experiences are radically different, we’re all tired of the quarantine. The weather getting nicer is not making it easier, at least over here in Philly.
See? Now I can talk about job loss and death and then bring up how the weather is getting nicer.
I sort of thought clarity on what’s really important would have just… I don’t know, arrived? But things are still too foggy.
My point?
Clarity on what’s important is your new responsibility.
The way we now have to have a larger conversation about economy (money) vs public health (lives), we also now have to decide what kind of person we want to be in the new centinormal going forward.
Will you wear a mask? Even when no one else is? How risk-averse will you be? Will you just go with the flow as things open back up? Or make your own decisions about it.
This past weekend we went to “socially distant” hang out at friends’ house in the burbs. But like sitting next to a plate of cookies versus having it on the other end of the table, the closer you are, the harder it is.
What about your life’s work? Do certain things that used to wind you up now feel silly or unimportant? Or are you still getting stressed about task progress and arbitrary deadlines that you think should feel silly or at least be less taxing now?
Cinco de’ mayo – the new dystopian New Years.
Time to think about your resolutions. What matters?
I know I’m trying to work less but do more. I’m really trying to stop working and thinking about work earlier, which has meant being just a bit more consistently productive to get to that point.
What attributes do you have that maybe were considered weaknesses “before” that are now new strengths?
I’m introverted. For the longest time, that’s been considered a flaw in our society. Now, as far as I can tell, it’s a survival skill.
Things are “objectively” fucked right now. But I’ve always “subjectively” thought they were fucked. Now, it just feels like everyone got on my page. For me, it’s less of an adjustment. I never thought things were “normal.”
I’m “inattentive.” It’s hard for me to focus on something with the appropriate level and cadence that other people seem to have with ease. Like someone talking.
But that also means it’s easy for me to go deep on and get lost in some idea or concept. If I can bury myself in something and have everything else fall away, then I think that puts me at a productivity advantage over someone who’s having trouble concentrating on work.
I prefer to work in big uninterrupted chunks, and there are now no shortage of those.
What about you?
I’ll also leave you with an unrelated? piece of advice from the Kevin Kelly post I referenced yesterday:
Anything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the universe, and a skill you can get better at. It’s the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows.
Kevin Kelly 68 life lessons for his 68th birthday.