This situation sucks. Lockdown, people dying, losing their jobs. All that stuff. Still, when given the choice between optimism and pessimism, I always choose the former. So today I wanted to put forward 7 reasons for optimism in these special times.
- Climate wins. Plenty of stories on how the lockdown means fewer people will die from air pollution.
- We can change. Related to the former - if somebody ever tries to claim that “we can’t shut down x to save the planet”, these days we’re getting evidence disproving such statements. We can - the questions is merely if there is willingness.
- If you can work from home, this situation is a perfect opportunity to streamline your organization. You suddenly have a lot of time to migrate the entire organization from email-mostly workflows to the many excellent productivity tools you never really had the time to test properly before.
- Working from home, it’s suddenly much more evident who is and isn’t productive. Hopefully this does not go unnoticed, and organization can get rid of dead meat and run more efficently once this is over. As the saying goes; when the tide goes out, you can see who has been swimming naked.
- Black swans won’t be dismissed anytime soon. People who are fond of margins of safety, cash savings, some extra food stored and so on, won’t be ridiculed the way they were a few months ago. Just-in-time everything is right most of the time but really really wrong when it’s wrong.
- The Nordic model wins. Pure capitalism is struggling these days and screaming for a bailout. Having a strong government has never been a bad idea and this situation amplifies that point.
- More time for friends. Everyone is in the same situation - suddenly with a lot of extra time on their hands. While we can’t hang out like before, I find myself talking to friends and family much more than before. That is definitely a good thing.