Tippets by Taps - Issue #128
This week we explore the oscillating emotions during COVID-19, why facts don’t change our minds, how web use has changed during the pandemic, what we’ve learned about our partners given WFH, the importance of hobbies, and more. Enjoy!
Two Things Can Be True At Once
The rollercoaster of emotions during uncertain times like these is jarring to say the least. I personally find myself oscillating between feeling optimistic - we (the collective “we”) will get through this and to the ‘new normal’ in a matter of months - and devastated - I can’t see the end and the uncertainty of it all is terrifying. The reality? The reality is probably somewhere in the middle, and hopefully closer to the optimistic side of the line. I appreciated this piece from Morgan Housel, if for nothing else than having someone else tell me I’m not crazy.
When emotions swing from one side to the other it can be tempting to not trust either. But sometimes it’s fine to have conflicting emotions, because two opposite things can be true at the same time…Good and bad news can coexist…It’s OK to be both confident about your decisions and humble about how little we know. “Strong opinions, weakly held” is probably the best philosophy when the stakes are high and the uncertainty is vast. It’s OK to want to stay informed while also wanting to tune everything out. Information can be vital and overwhelming at the same time. I find myself switching between outbreak statistics and wanting to watch stupid YouTube videos with my kids. It’s OK to have been dead wrong about something you believed days, even hours, ago. Don’t beat yourself up, and try to empathize with others. We’re all figuring this out as we go.
Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds
We currently live in a 24/7/365 news cycle, with information coming at us from all directions. Figuring out what to believe is increasingly difficult, so much so that we often fall back to believing ‘news’ that fits what we want to believe. Why don’t facts change our minds? This article explains the logic of false beliefs and proposes a better system for constructive conversation when trying to change someone’s mind.
Convincing someone to change their mind is really the process of convincing them to change their tribe. If they abandon their beliefs, they run the risk of losing social ties. You can’t expect someone to change their mind if you take away their community too. You have to give them somewhere to go. Nobody wants their worldview torn apart if loneliness is the outcome.
The Internet was #BuiltForThis
Originally conceived of as a communications network for humanity during a crisis, it’s come a long way since then. But in this moment of crisis, it’s being put to use for that original purpose. Some amazing data from Cloudflare, looking at how the internet is being used during COVID-19 and the history of the internet.
Yep, feels about right...
Spouses Share the Hilarious Things They've Learned About Their Partner Working from Home
I talked last week about how WFH during COVID-19 is not the same as regular WFH. In these abnormal times, with everyone (ideally!) sheltering in place, we are in close proximity with our partners and, in a lot of cases, seeing the “work side” of them for the first time ever. These sweet and hilarious tweets are the perfect reminder that we may not know our significant others quite as well as we think we do. I admit to laughing out loud multiple times…
A funny thing about quarantining is hearing your partner in full work mode for the first time. Like, I’m married to a “let’s circle back” guy — who knew?
10:11 AM - 19 Mar 2020
@inLaurasWords Turns out my husband can actually small talk, just not with anyone we know in non-work life.
11:29 AM - 19 Mar 2020
On hobbies.
From my archives, a post on the importance of hobbies that feels more relevant today as we find ourselves stuck at home. Hobbies are an interesting concept in today’s day and age. At first glance it may seem as though hobbies are commonplace. There are bird watchers, craning to hear the tweets of seemingly common but in fact rare species of Thoughtus Leaderus. We have writers, churning out volume after volume of “Re:”, a seemingly endless story of response and avoidance. We even have ghost hunters, looking at snaps that may disappear in anywhere between 1–10 seconds. However, upon further review, it appears that today’s ‘hobbies’ may in fact not fit the traditional definition of the term. Ask people what their hobbies are and, should they be young enough to not remember life without the Internet, they’ll likely respond with an “Um” or an “Ah” and then offer a perfunctory response that could be found on a Bingo! sheet: Reading. Traveling. Cooking. Playing sports. Watching movies. Now more than ever, having something to do simply to learn, is a powerful outlet for stress.
Quote I’m thinking about: “Prejudice and ethnic strife feed off abstraction. However, the proximity required by a meal – something about handing dishes around, unfurling napkins at the same moment, even asking a stranger to pass the salt – disrupts our ability to cling to the belief that the outsiders who wear unusual clothes and speak in distinctive accents deserve to be sent home or assaulted.” - Alain de Botton