It has been 102 days since I started self-isolating myself and dealing with the pandemic. This forced break from the normalcy has led to my conversations with self, that continue to reshape my own expectations of myself. I am continuing to self-isolate, but slowly starting to take socially distant visits with friends who have been equally diligent about isolating.
It is good to be cautious — especially considering that 511 epidemiologists (aka people who know a lot about viruses and not random investors) think that it is prudent to expect a semblance of cautious normalcy sometime between three to 12 months. I definitely don’t want to work in an office for a while.
By the way, every day, when I go for a walk I see one in ten people walking, running or biking on Embarcadero in San Francisco wearing masks. It is usually the middle aged or seniors. This is supposedly a city with more “scientific” bent.
America, it seems, doesn’t listen to science this days. It seems a 100 days is long enough for America to forget that we are still in middle of a pandemic. Whether it is businesses that are reopening or the protests, it seems everyone is throwing caution to the winds. I particularly like this story by Alexis Madrigal and Robinson Meyer in The Atlantic. You should read it.
By the way, did you know that programming is a language. You know like French — because coding uses the same regions of the brain as speech. That is pretty cool.
This past weekend, I read The Chiffon Trenches: a memoir by Vogue editor and fashion industry icon André Leon Talley. It is utterly avoidable. Sure there is some serious snark about Anna Wintour and Conde Nast, but it isn’t worth the time you will spend on the book. One delicious tidbit from the book: supermodel Naomi Campbell, (currently a judge on highly mediocre Amazon show, Making The Cut) carries ten phones in a “Hefty zip-lock bag” for calling from various countries she is visiting, and a “fresh bottle of Tabasco sauce.”
Talking about food condiments, I read this blog post by Lukasz Palka, a Tokyo-based photographer. He compares creative content input to food. What you consume defines your mental health. He is so right when he points out that “to avoid looking at a single, algorithm-curated source all day. It will just feed you what you know already.” It is exactly what I said in this weekend’s newsletter.
Vespa reimagined as an electric scooter by Mightyseed, an India design consultancy. I would buy this in a heartbeat.
June 8, 2020, San Francisco