Victory (V) Day 2.0
This week has produced practically zero new writing, beyond the occasional journal entry. I’ve had these minor, throbbing headaches since last Saturday, and am starting to appreciate how debilitating migraines must be. I’m thankful it’s not worse, but am still hoping the headaches are an unpleasant side effect of being seven days into my latest attempt at cutting out caffeine.
More than any other week since March 9th, life under the coronavirus felt very exhausting. It was Anne’s birthday, and we went out to dinner with masks. I talked to my grandfather on the phone, but still haven’t spent any real time with him in six months. And on top of it all, work from home felt very tedious.
Those are certainly good problems to have during all this – health and a job – but good problems can still be frustrating, particularly while hunched over a table with throbbing temples.
More than anything, I want some random person to just come up and hug me, if only to prove that human-on-human contact with strangers, even during COVID and even in New York, is still not all that risky. If not a hug, then I’d love someone to say “good morning” back to me on my runs before work.
I’m headed back to the office this Tuesday, in part because I want to shake things up and work from somewhere other than a kitchen table, but also because I hope it’s a step towards regaining some normalcy in my day-to-day. I still think the future holds far more virtual work arrangements than the past, but I’d like to see some coworkers in person and interact with more people face-to-face.
Derek Thompson, who has become the journalist I most love to hate (Tucker Carlson doesn’t count because he’s not a journalist), wrote a piece in The Atlantic called Mask Up and Shut Up, in which he argues we should all stop talking in public. Here’s the tagline: COVID-19 transmission would go down if we spoke less, or less loudly, in public spaces. Why aren’t more people saying so?
I’ll save you the 2,000 words and give you the answer to that question: No one is saying so because no one wants to live in a world where you can’t speak in public.
But, dumb piece of reporting aside, it made me think a lot about how we move on from this crisis. Like I wrote last week, perception will do a lot to shape outcomes – and if we’re all reading and writing pieces that argue for ridiculous curbs on human interaction, we’ll end up with a society that has curbed human interaction in ridiculous ways.
It’s also a reminder how New York-centric so much reporting is these days. Anne and I are in Connecticut for the weekend and the atmosphere here is totally different, with most people wearing masks inside and close to one another but not for much else. Out here, Thompson’s suggestion feels even more absurd.
I’ve always pictured the day we beat COVID as the 21st Century’s own V-Day, but I know deep down that it won’t be. There won’t be a major unmasking, but instead a gradual thawing of all the precautions we’ve surrounded ourselves with over the last six months. There will certainly be fighting – over masks, over the vaccine, over pretty much everything – and if recent history is any indication, there’s no reason to expect that we’ll make the right decisions at the right time, with the conviction of a great nation.
But… there’s something about V-Day photos that just makes me smile. All the good guys and girls are united in the excitement of having beaten something evil. There’s no reason why that couldn’t be us coming together after defeating COVID, the “Great Unifier” of our generation.
A Financial Education
I stayed out of the fray this week and read very little news of any sort. Instead, I spent a lot of time reading old Mr. Money Mustache blog posts and listening to old Bigger Pockets Money Podcast episodes. Partly I’m interested in financial independence and early retirement, but more than that I’ve found that both MMM and Bigger Pockets have a lot of great advice on value systems and lifestyle design.
At a time when everyone is rightly freaking out about how corrosive the internet has become, it’s easy to overlook its value as a source of education. I spent about 15 hours this week between the blog and podcast, and felt like I learned a lot more, a lot faster than I have in more traditional learning settings. Many of the guests on Bigger Pockets are people who used what the internet has to offer to vastly improve their lives, and the episodes remind me how lucky I am to have all these tools at my disposal so early in my life and career.
An extreme example of leveraging what the internet has to offer is Scott Young, another guy with a blog worth reading who is famous for “ultralearning” – acquiring new skills much faster than conventional wisdom dictates. He got an undergrad comp-sci degree from MIT in one year, learned three languages fluently on a twelve month trip around the world, and taught himself to draw accurate self-portraits in 30 days. Check him out if you’re looking for guidance on how to fill some of the time vacated by the coronavirus.
– Emmett
Recent Posts:
Another Coffee Post… Ugh – Round 3 of Emmett vs. Caffeine
If We All Were Bloggers – Wishing for more time to think things through
What I’m Reading:
Consider the Lobster – David Foster Wallace
What I’m Listening To:
Andrew Yang on UBI, the coronavirus, and his next job in politics – The Ezra Klein Show