Cost Zero, recession, and global lockdown

This is the first time the uncertainty I’ve been feeling for a long time is becoming real. Society, life, environment — all of it has never appeared this unstable in any scenario my mind could imagine. The most magical thing, if we can call it that, is that the world balance has been swept by basically one person. Not even a group of wealthy people, hateful people, or anything. Just one person who, by one action, overturned the world we used to know.

As Jeremy Rifkin said, time has come for the Third Industrial Revolution.

The COVID-19 pandemic needed big actions: a global lockdown. Our generation wasn’t ready for that. Many people thought being digital natives would help solve most of the isolation feeling. It’s not.

Nobody was prepared. Neither our grandparents who lived through the war, nor us. Neither politicians or health services. Let me be clear: I’m not a doctor, a scientist, or an economist. I’m only accountable for what I live, see, experience, and how I feel. This paper won’t contain any numbers, statistics, or remedies. Most of us are anxious, and this is a completely normal feeling. We just must not give up to fear, anger, or other bad thoughts.

I read a lot of tweets talking about taking your chance, flipping a coin, and starting a business because every other business is closing — “so it’s time to gain acceptance”. Let me quote Justin Jackson:

We’re learning how frail the economic system is. Millions of people are out of work. It turns out, all those small businesses provide jobs for a lot of people.

How can someone who just lost their job and is now forced to stay home, thinking about all the negativity around, again and again, just take their chance?

There are two types of people: those who complain and those who act, but both can behave like the other depending on the momentum. It’s not a time to blame or put people in stressful positions.

To all the fine young folks who became VC associates in 2019: You joined at the absolute peak of an asset class bubble and it’s not going to be fun for at least 24 months. — Geoff Lewis, April 8, 2020

There is no perfect way to act. You can, if you have the energy, find and reveal your secret power — by creating content, experimenting, or following your gut and your dreams. But you can also rest. Consume content: read, listen, watch, cook, work out, sleep. Just take care of yourself.

The situation is already stressful. Don’t let others put pressure on you. You’re not forced to follow privileged advice from people preaching the good word.

Here’s an update on what I’ve done so far during the lockdown and what I plan to do next:

The first weeks were easy — we had lectures so I had no time to worry.
Holidays came, so I prototyped an app idea in a week. I’m going to write about it soon. Focused on something other than what’s going on outside.
Now, I want to take a break from the digital world. I started cooking for the first time — you can follow my journey on Twitter (gif posted daily during the lockdown).
Next, I think about working out a bit just to be tired at the end of the day. I also plan on singing and recording something (anonymously posted on SoundCloud), don’t ask why, I don’t know.

If you’ve been following me for a while you know I love the Cost Zero offered by tech, by learning, by experimenting, and by meeting new people.

Just before the lockdown, I bought a bit (less than a euro) of crypto (Bitcoin and Ethereum) and invested in the stock market through Revolut. My thoughts on this, and why I think nothing will change in the short term:

Crypto: people will lose all their faith in the current economy and invest in crypto, but like the stock market, prices will heavily increase, then everybody will want to sell until valuation reaches 0. The main cryptocurrencies are not ready for daily usage as a main currency. We need to wait for a stable coin.
Stocks: it’s getting easier to invest, so stocks will get even more volatile as more and more people buy and sell. The market won’t change much from what we know until the day it will probably be faked from the inside to be maintained for a while.

The stock market seems to be saying that the outlook for our economy is about the same as it was last march. Personally I feel like something has changed. idk. — Jerry Neumann, April 8, 2020

My theory isn’t a truth. My theory doesn’t have an overview of the situation, the required knowledge, or even previous events. Help me get a clearer vision.

That’s it for my words — I needed them to be spread. Feel free to reach me on Twitter to debate this.

Please stay safe. Take care of yourself and your loved ones.