Near-term planning for secondary impacts of coronavirus lockdowns [assuming things don't blow up]
In this document, I attempt to discuss the impact of the coronavirus lockdown and how to prepare for it. This is not focused on the direct impact of coronavirus, but rather on the secondary impact of precautions that people are taking, including the lockdowns and the new normal of staying home and working from home. The document is written in an imperative tone, focused on what to do. However, please don't read into this tone the idea that I am confident of these suggestions and authoritatively pushing them. They are just ideas! Many of these ideas are self-justifying, but I have not tried to justify their relative importance to other ideas that I have omitted. Subject to time constraints, I'll be happy to answer specific questions challenging the ideas, or comparing them to other ideas I didn't list. If you have a question of that sort, there's a good chance I'll just agree that the idea I didn't list was more important. My initial draft of this post included some discussion of potential future timelines, but I decided to omit that in order to make the post focus on ideas for dealing with the situation. I may separately write about possible futures. General ideas * Expect a three-month timeline for the lockdown (i.e., lockdown continuing till the end of June), with the possibility of a six-month, twelve-month, or even eighteen-month lockdown. Even if a strict lockdown lasts much less, health advice may still recommend that you shelter in place for additional time. * Brace for impact! Prepare psychologically. Plan for three months of lockdown; it could be shorter, but it could also be much longer. If you overprepare a little bit because the lockdown lasts just one month, you'll need to write off the effort, but that'll be less painful than forming expectations that this will end in a few weeks and then constantly being disappointed at how much it's dragging out. * It's ideal if all your concrete actions are "no-regret" -- so that if the lockdown lasts long
Great post! A few things I would add, having thought about crossing the street for a while:
- When looking left and right, let your eyes briefly wander to the horizon on each side, or as far as possible until your view is obstructed. If there are blind spots (such as those created by parked cars), or road curvature that makes it difficult to see past some distance, it's better to consciously note that and adjust strategy accordingly, rather than just assuming that if you don't see a car coming, it isn't there. (There's also something really satisfying about looking at the horizon. I've also heard it's good for the eyes.)
- Related to the above,
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