Life after Corona
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are just speculative-- meant to initiate objective and dispassionate discussion. It is not a fatalistic rant, meant to appeal to emotions.
What we are seeing today, it goes without saying, is unprecedented in recent times. Nowhere in living memory was the entire world in a state of lockdown, with no end in sight as to when and how things will come back to how they were.
What we are seeing today, is a state of saturation of our existing crisis responses. All our existing responses and strategies to handle epidemics have proven to be inadequate in stopping the Corona, which continues on its rampage worldwide.
What we are seeing today is a very imminent discontinuity in the nature of our lives. No longer will our lives be a linear projection of our past, and no amount of past successes of businesses, organisations and even of countries, can guarantee future sustainability.
What we are seeing today, as Nassim Taleb would put it-- a black swan event. What we need to adjust is not just our actions or strategies-- but our very beliefs and hermeneutics.
We are also mostly like the goat in Bertrand Russel's analogy about inductive understanding of our world. A goat that is well fed and taken care of by its owner, grows up believing that its owner is its saviour and protector-- until one day when it is Bakrid. By then it is too late.
We have all built our lives based on our beliefs. We have bet our careers, finances, and emotional well-being on institutions, economies and cultures that we believed were our saviours and protectors. For some of us, this belief was so intense, that we left behind our country, our culture and severed connections with our entire past, to start new lives in lands that promised us wealth and fortunes.
None of them foresaw or were prepared for this discontinuity.
And this is what "disruption" really means. These days, every new mobile app or website imagined itself to be an example of "disruptive innovation". None of the "disruptive innovations" of yesteryears-- be it Google or Facebook or 4G or whatever else, could stall the global onslaught of the virus. Sure, without them, we may have already seen huge casualties like that of the 1918 Spanish flu (which has nothing to do with Spain, incidentally) that killed millions. Yet, we are in a state of lockdown today and pretty much stopped everything around which we built our daily lives.
As companies and nations strive to get back on track in the aftermath of the Corona, life will not be easy. It is imperative then, to ask ourselves-- as individuals, what should our strategy be? So, here are some heuristics that I could garner, in no particular order:
1. Come "home": Given the uncertainty that is looming in front of us, it is important for us to be in a place where we feel we are at "home". It need not be the place of our birth or the culture we grew up in-- although, that would make it much more easier. It is important to be in a place where we feel a sense of emotional and spiritual attachment, ownership and belongingness. We should be willing to face whatever challenges it throws at us, and work for its sustainability. One way to ask what is "home" is to ask yourself the question, where would you prefer to die?
Conventional "rational choice" decisions based on what technology has a lot of "scope" or which currency is stronger, is not likely to help us survive the discontinuity.
2. Get rid of debts: All of them. As quickly as possible. Including non-performing assets like land or real estate that is just bleeding us. Debts are modern-day shackles that prevent us from responding adequately to challenges. Facing an uncertain future while burdened with debt, is like trying to fight a raging bull with our hands tied behind our back.
Getting rid of debts is easier said than done, of course-- and I'd like to have some pointers how to perform this step as well. But it is important to be done.
3. Build your new joint family: One of the primary things that saw India survive its cultural trauma of colonisation and resultant poverty is its cultural emphasis on large, joint families. Emotional support networks-- which is what true families are supposed to be about-- are highly underrated. In fact, in today's "modern" schooling, joint families or large family networks are ridiculed and mocked. And families themselves have become a case of "healthy competition" among its members getting into a cancerous stage. In families today, younger generation are under tremendous pressure to "prove" themselves with all kinds of achievements, when all that is required for emotional support networks is the age-old wisdom of acceptance and celebration of our diversity.
Joint families are not necessarily made of blood relatives. It is made of people who can resonate with us at a spiritual and emotional level. It does not have any rules or norms. It just is a network, where its members look out for one another. Joint families need not have to live in the same place and need not adhere to a single ideology. They need not have to be in the same profession-- nor do they need to have common finances. All they need is a common sentiment that helps them look out for one another-- and just call up or message one another to just ask "how are you?"
4. Seek intrinsic, not extrinsic rewards: In the coming years, the surest way to ruin our lives is to respond to external stimuli and build our sense of self-worth around them. Given the disruption, there are going to be a large number of no-holds barred greed and insecurity that will be practiced by organisations and nations alike. They will create all kinds of "incentives" to get young people to do what they want them to do-- which need not necessarily be in the interests of the people who are doing things. It is hence important, for the younger generation to deeply introspect and ask what gives them a sense of meaning and purpose for their lives. It is important to not fall into peer pressure and getting into a trap of excessive consumerism, debt and an endless effort to keep status quo.
None of these will of course, guarantee our sustainability. By definition, a discontinuity means that we are entering into the realm of the unknown-- where we don't even know what we don't know. The speed with which, some things have entered our lives just like that, we have no idea where it is going to take us. For instance, we have argued and debated for years and years on things like individual liberty, privacy, ethical AI, etc. But all that have been brushed aside and state-of-the-art surveillance and control technologies have been deployed in most countries across the world, in a matter of days. Sure, they may be needed now. But will they ever be removed?
We are now staring in the face of a possible "perfect" power singularity in the future. Where the powerless are almost absolutely powerless and the powerful are almost absolutely powerful.
So stay safe.. from the Corona, and what is likely to come after Corona!
What we are seeing today, it goes without saying, is unprecedented in recent times. Nowhere in living memory was the entire world in a state of lockdown, with no end in sight as to when and how things will come back to how they were.
What we are seeing today, is a state of saturation of our existing crisis responses. All our existing responses and strategies to handle epidemics have proven to be inadequate in stopping the Corona, which continues on its rampage worldwide.
What we are seeing today is a very imminent discontinuity in the nature of our lives. No longer will our lives be a linear projection of our past, and no amount of past successes of businesses, organisations and even of countries, can guarantee future sustainability.
What we are seeing today, as Nassim Taleb would put it-- a black swan event. What we need to adjust is not just our actions or strategies-- but our very beliefs and hermeneutics.
We are also mostly like the goat in Bertrand Russel's analogy about inductive understanding of our world. A goat that is well fed and taken care of by its owner, grows up believing that its owner is its saviour and protector-- until one day when it is Bakrid. By then it is too late.
We have all built our lives based on our beliefs. We have bet our careers, finances, and emotional well-being on institutions, economies and cultures that we believed were our saviours and protectors. For some of us, this belief was so intense, that we left behind our country, our culture and severed connections with our entire past, to start new lives in lands that promised us wealth and fortunes.
None of them foresaw or were prepared for this discontinuity.
And this is what "disruption" really means. These days, every new mobile app or website imagined itself to be an example of "disruptive innovation". None of the "disruptive innovations" of yesteryears-- be it Google or Facebook or 4G or whatever else, could stall the global onslaught of the virus. Sure, without them, we may have already seen huge casualties like that of the 1918 Spanish flu (which has nothing to do with Spain, incidentally) that killed millions. Yet, we are in a state of lockdown today and pretty much stopped everything around which we built our daily lives.
As companies and nations strive to get back on track in the aftermath of the Corona, life will not be easy. It is imperative then, to ask ourselves-- as individuals, what should our strategy be? So, here are some heuristics that I could garner, in no particular order:
1. Come "home": Given the uncertainty that is looming in front of us, it is important for us to be in a place where we feel we are at "home". It need not be the place of our birth or the culture we grew up in-- although, that would make it much more easier. It is important to be in a place where we feel a sense of emotional and spiritual attachment, ownership and belongingness. We should be willing to face whatever challenges it throws at us, and work for its sustainability. One way to ask what is "home" is to ask yourself the question, where would you prefer to die?
Conventional "rational choice" decisions based on what technology has a lot of "scope" or which currency is stronger, is not likely to help us survive the discontinuity.
2. Get rid of debts: All of them. As quickly as possible. Including non-performing assets like land or real estate that is just bleeding us. Debts are modern-day shackles that prevent us from responding adequately to challenges. Facing an uncertain future while burdened with debt, is like trying to fight a raging bull with our hands tied behind our back.
Getting rid of debts is easier said than done, of course-- and I'd like to have some pointers how to perform this step as well. But it is important to be done.
3. Build your new joint family: One of the primary things that saw India survive its cultural trauma of colonisation and resultant poverty is its cultural emphasis on large, joint families. Emotional support networks-- which is what true families are supposed to be about-- are highly underrated. In fact, in today's "modern" schooling, joint families or large family networks are ridiculed and mocked. And families themselves have become a case of "healthy competition" among its members getting into a cancerous stage. In families today, younger generation are under tremendous pressure to "prove" themselves with all kinds of achievements, when all that is required for emotional support networks is the age-old wisdom of acceptance and celebration of our diversity.
Joint families are not necessarily made of blood relatives. It is made of people who can resonate with us at a spiritual and emotional level. It does not have any rules or norms. It just is a network, where its members look out for one another. Joint families need not have to live in the same place and need not adhere to a single ideology. They need not have to be in the same profession-- nor do they need to have common finances. All they need is a common sentiment that helps them look out for one another-- and just call up or message one another to just ask "how are you?"
4. Seek intrinsic, not extrinsic rewards: In the coming years, the surest way to ruin our lives is to respond to external stimuli and build our sense of self-worth around them. Given the disruption, there are going to be a large number of no-holds barred greed and insecurity that will be practiced by organisations and nations alike. They will create all kinds of "incentives" to get young people to do what they want them to do-- which need not necessarily be in the interests of the people who are doing things. It is hence important, for the younger generation to deeply introspect and ask what gives them a sense of meaning and purpose for their lives. It is important to not fall into peer pressure and getting into a trap of excessive consumerism, debt and an endless effort to keep status quo.
None of these will of course, guarantee our sustainability. By definition, a discontinuity means that we are entering into the realm of the unknown-- where we don't even know what we don't know. The speed with which, some things have entered our lives just like that, we have no idea where it is going to take us. For instance, we have argued and debated for years and years on things like individual liberty, privacy, ethical AI, etc. But all that have been brushed aside and state-of-the-art surveillance and control technologies have been deployed in most countries across the world, in a matter of days. Sure, they may be needed now. But will they ever be removed?
We are now staring in the face of a possible "perfect" power singularity in the future. Where the powerless are almost absolutely powerless and the powerful are almost absolutely powerful.
So stay safe.. from the Corona, and what is likely to come after Corona!
Comments
Life is not gonna be the same anymore..
So time for everyone to reconnect with themselves and go back to basics!