Covid19! As I watched people bang vessels, while washing mine, mopped the floor while waiting for the Sensex to please find one(!), and swept rooms while the lockdown enforced some sweeping changes, I also tried to step back and take a look – outwards and inwards – at what’s happening!
The end of the year provides a good excuse to reflect on the way forward. In my search for knowing the reasons behind a change of heart on the place to retire in after work, I stumbled upon my own narrative shift. That led me to thinking about signalling at large, and the impact it has on the lives we lead.
We’ve gone a long way since Keynes predicted in the 1930s that we will have a 15 hour work week in a few decades. When I started thinking about why we (the majority) never really got around to that, I realised that many parts of our lives are increasingly being optimised for efficiency, and that too for its own sake. When do we say ‘enough’?
As the world and its system progress, many things which were formerly life skills are increasingly outsourced or automated. What would happen if we had to go back to them? Can we handle the scenario without a playbook?
My models of interaction with the world at large has helped me convert many uncertainties into risks. But they are far from robust. I realise that I cannot completely control what is thrown at me, I have to build better framing for how to react to it. Maybe that’s the way to make the uncertain, simple.