Ask HN: How has 20 months of pandemic changed you personally?
The pandemic experience is very subjective and personal. For some, it is a horrible experience especially if someone close to them died because of the virus. In light of that, trying not to be insensitive, I would unequivocally say that it has been a overwhelmingly positive experience for me.<p>I live in a developing country with one of the world&#x27;s worst traffic congestion; simply going to the office and back takes 4 hours minimum. Just being spared from the commute has made my life so much better.<p>Working from my home instead of an open office is again so much better. I can get up from my chair, take small breaks, etc.. without worrying if I look like I&#x27;m not working.<p>It&#x27;s never made sense to me, especially for knowledge work, why people need to go to the office everyday just to sit in front of a computer.  It seems to be a relic of a bygone manufacturing era where-in for factory workers, it was essential that everyone was in the factory for the assembly-line. For knowledge work, this is not a requirement, and knowledge workers usually do better when they can be left alone and just collaborate asynchronously.<p>The biggest gain from computers is that they have freed us from repetitive work. Computers can just be programmed once and they can repeat themselves perfectly until infinity. But the typical work day pre-pandemic was just about turning knowledge workers into robots; wake-up, go to the office, sit in front of the computer and try not to look idle then repeat until death.<p>Being freed from working in the office allows for so much greater flexibility. One can chat with family during small breaks, have lunch with family instead of co-workers, or stay-up late reading something interesting without sacrificing work the next day, since there is a lot less worry about being late for work.<p>Some other realization is that some behaviours are not really essential. Pre-pandemic, entertainment like NBA seemed so important but then with the pandemic, NBA seemed to just be so trivial. There was no NBA for a season and people adjusted easily.<p>In line with that, the pandemic has highlighted the importance of scientists over entertainers. Lebron James can&#x27;t punch a virus in the face but a global team of scientists can make a vaccine to save lives. This shift in recognition of the value of scientists will reap dividends for humanity later on I bet.<p>The lockdown, for a short-period, turned everyone into Hikikomori. Instead of being looked-down upon for staying at home, staying at home was suddenly the smart and social thing to do. There was a shift in social acceptability with regards to staying at home. The urge, habit and routine to go-out to a mall was replaced with just staying at home and spending time on Digital spaces like Discord. The mall operators lost a lot of money but overall, I think this is a positive change with less gas consumption, less traffic, less carbon emissions, etc..<p>The pandemic has proven that online-first is feasible. The old ways of working and even of education can change. Traditional education also didn&#x27;t make sense to me. Again, growing-up, just going to school and back home took many many hours because of the terrible traffic. Why need to spend so much time just to sit in-front of a teacher who is just sharing generic knowledge that can be easily learned via a computer? I&#x27;d rather just spend time at home with family and learn on my own with maybe a teacher to guide and challenge me.<p>I&#x27;m also a bit anti-social and so putting 40 kids into a small room never seemed appealing to me. I guess it can be said that school is a great place to learn how to socialize but I think there should be a better way to go about it. The prevalence of school bullying and school shootings is an indicator I think of a broken system.<p>Again the model of one teacher and 40 students again seem to be just a relic of an older era when knowledge was scarce. This model makes sense in the pre-computer times, when books were expensive and knowledgeable teachers were rare and so it made sense to group students together to learn from the knowledgeable teacher. But in this day and age, with so much educational material accessible on-line, this model is no longer necessary.<p>Another change with the pandemic is changing habits. For a long-period, people couldn&#x27;t go to their favourite restaurants but people adjusted easily. Maybe instead of spending on an expensive restaurant meal, people would just learn to cook and eat at home.<p>In short, Pandemic has made some things more essential (like online shopping) while others are no longer viewed as essential (like going to the office every day) and I&#x27;m optimistic it could lead to a new and better world.