Quotidian Address

I'd like to echo your sentiments from the last post. It has been hard to be productive during this whole pandemic, though the reason for this has changed throughout. Initially, there is always the shock of it and the coming to terms with our new workflows. Then there was the low underlying level of anxiety as we watched the terrible numbers rise. The stress as the numbers stabilized and we came to grips with the interminability of self-isolation. And now, in the first denouement, there is a feeling of confusion - are we safe to start going back? Where are the lines? All of it down to uncertainty. Even at the best of times I struggle to be productive and throughout this whole experience, I have certainly gone through the stages above and used them as excuses (perhaps rightfully) to delay engaging with my larger goals and aspirations. As spring comes, then, and with it a start to what may be the end of the first wave (though who truly knows) I am working on building better systems...

My turn to apologize for a late post - despite spending all my time at home these days, I'm actually finding myself less productive on the home front, rather than more. As the boundaries between work and home blur I am finding it harder to work on things in the middle. For me, the economic consequences of all of this can be split into a few buckets. First, there are firms experiencing short-term impacts that will basically return to the original trend as soon as possible: demand builds up during social distancing, but as soon as limitations are eased the industry recovers. Hairdressers and pet groomers are clearly this (I don't think people are suddenly realizing they enjoy cutting their own hair or their dog's), and more controversially I suspect restaurants and broader leisure are too. I think a lot of people are pining to go out for dinner, and will do so as soon as they can. Firms with little liquidity or safety margin may still go bankrupt in this bucket, but if the...

The outbreak of coronavirus was a discontinuity in our lives, and it left many individuals and institutions to confront the sudden lack of control that came with it. I wonder how, as institutions especially try to make themselves more robust to this now experienced shock, we will see some of these short term changes stick. In the last post you made excellent points about the changing nature of education. Professors do seem to have managed ok, although not without the occasional funny anecdote arising. What do you do when a one hour class is forced into 40 minutes because of limitations in teleconferencing? What about when your audio cuts out or half your class is in their PJs? Still, this has not turned out to be an insurmountable challenge. In the long term, I expect Universities will have a more comprehensive online strategy so that these changes don't come as such a shock. More classes will be recorded, more assignments administered electronically, ways to write exams. And ...