COVID-19 Reflections
What I noticed in my life and that of others during this so called "crisis"
Some see a crisis as an opportunity, others a disaster. I belong to the former. Perhaps I was lucky enough to be in the former category, thanks to the accidents in my life. Doesn’t matter though.
The crisis situation upset a lot of established and accepted norms in the society. For years, companies claiming that work done on a computer cannot be done from home are now espousing to their employees how awesome and productive working from home will be, while totally ignoring all the discrimination people like me, living in third world countries (formerly, maybe in the future too) face when it comes to salaries for doing the same work, albeit in a different time zone.
Fashionable businesses: fancy restaurants, posh cafes that look the same all over the world, with their expensive looking cheap furniture and boring “Scandinavian” style interiors are being screwed left and right thanks to a combination of bureaucratic red-tape, leveraged ownership and razor thin margins. “Travelling” is no longer a profession and Insta thots will hopefully be done in soon as well.
Employed 9-5 people like me have discovered just how unfulfilling and empty our lives actually. While weekends were never anything beyond eating, sleeping, the occasional book or movie, the massive curtailment of commuting has thrown open a Pandora’s box of idle time in our lives.
As evidenced by the posts, photos and memes shared by my friends and family all over the internet, this period of lockdown is anywhere between mildly boring to extremely disappointing for most people. We replaced creative hobbies with mindless consumption of Movies and TV Series on Netflix, playing, making and living life with vicariously enjoying it through the daring adventures of others on YouTube and Instagram, replaced a meaningful life wherever we live with a craving for “adventure” and “wanderlust” . Very few, like this gentleman here has actually turned this period into something meaningful and productive.
This crisis has been an amazing opportunity to pause and evaluate the meaning of our lives, our interactions with people around us, our priorities and the things that make our life more meaningful.
I started finally cooking. Nothing great or fancy, just simple stuff that can replace my former diet of cheese and cashew nuts. Something with a little flavor, some zing and color.
When my Gym shut down in early March, I was worried that I would lose all of my gains. I did lose a few Kgs of weight and perhaps a good chunk of muscle mass, but on the flipside, I haven’t yet gotten into a debilitating injury yet. I started running again, my old passion, and I have surprisingly maintained the discipline to work out almost everyday (I did work out daily, but it was too much for my body at times and I need to get enough rest to make progress).
This self-discipline has opened up a ton of free time for me. I got back to learning German again. I am looking forward to buying a music instrument and start playing music. I hope this improvment in self-discipline acts as a force multiplier and lets me pursue more things I am interested in.
Most importantly, this crisis has shown me how this 40hr work week idea of the late 19th, 20th century needs to die. In the words of Peter from Office Space “I only get about 1 or 2 hrs of real, actual solid work done” daily, mostly.
Software Engineering is about being creative, of finding solutions to problems. Productivity is in no way “measurable” on an hourly basis, irrespective what data nerds will tell you otherwise. 1 hr of real, solid, intensive programming is not the same as 1 hr of just punching in keys on your keyboard, half-distracted in Twitter and Hacker News. Heck even working times are irregular. On days where I am really into something, I wouldn’t mind spend 12+ hrs on a problem. On some days, I would like to do nothing other than pack up my stuff and think about or do more interesting things in life.
Companies and employment have found a wonderful way to exploit these intense bursts of creativity while still chaining and paying us via this inane system of work. The more I spend time in this circle of work week / weekend, the more I grow desperate to get out of this eternal circle of hell. I am going to spend the next few months of this year working on the side on ideas that I have. A few days ago, I saw someone write a blog that got featured on HackerNews about an idea that I have had for more than month. The blog got me frustrated not that it was bad, but it could have been me on the front page of a prominent news feed and gotten some fame points that would lead to more money.
Anger is good. It tells you something is wrong. In my case, it was pointing out to my own frustration with my inactivity and idleness. This blog/feed/post is a result of this frustration. Rather than holding off till I design and implement the perfect product of my choice, I decided to ship something early, even raw. I’d rather be partially useful and exist than be perfect and non-existent
Build. Ship. Refine. Repeat. Make small scale experiments with low downside and plenty of upside.