Hi friends,
This is Congxing Cai. Greetings from Mountain View.
2020 is a rollercoaster. The past few weeks have been getting even more crazy. Too much news to absorb. But, let’s take a step back and view changes as a norm of life.
Happening Now
😷 The coming months of the pandemic could be catastrophic. The virus normally travel more efficiently in dry winter air than in the summer. The cold weather will also drive people indoor more often, with bad circulation. There comes the holidays too. Many people will feel compelled
to keep their traditions for the gatherings and celebration.
Winter days also wear on our body’s defense mechanisms. When people become more sedentary, our immune systems become less vigilant, and our overall resilience flags. Symptoms of depression, too, tend to run high in winter.
Previous flu pandemics have shown that the first fall and winter waves are often the worst. We have started to see the uptick of that wave already.
👩⚕️ Meanwhile, our understandings about the virus have also been improving. Covid doctors find a significant minority of Covid-19 patients get very ill because of an impaired interferon response. The lack of interferon prevents the body to stop the virus replicating to a dangerous level that triggers more serious reactions. “Interferon-blocking antibodies appeared in 101 of 987 patients with severe disease, but none of 663 people with an asymptomatic or mild case, according to the study in Science.” If this finding is confirmed, it offers a way to identify people with high risks and treat them at early stage with interferon.
✈️ This year, the pandemic has caused significant damage to the global economy. Among all, airline industry may be affected the most. An inside research of the airline industry’s meltdown shows that indeed nothing new is happening, but the existing trend is happening faster. The economic model for airline industry largely relies on the fuel efficiency, which is mainly driven by new crafts. We have already seen trends of moving out of the traditional hub-and-spoke model to point-to-point routes using smaller single aisle aircrafts. For a long while, airlines are struggling between two conflicting goals of driving more seat miles and reducing carbon emissions. Without a clear short path to recovery and a large bail out loans, it is hard to see how the original vision can be achieved. And, what that means to the climate?
🔥 “California is in the midst of an existential climate crisis,” Gavin Newson said. Wildfires at California have grew larger and deadlier in recent years. There are several reasons for this evolution. First, there has been a lack of recognition of the role of natural fire in maintaining forest health and preventing fuel from building up; second, the population boom has caused a sprawling human development on the “wildland-urban interface”; finally, the climate change is here, and faster than anyone expected. The drought at California, combined with the hottest August in the state’s history, has made the forest much easier to ignite.
Learnings of the Week
☀️ I had a conversation with a colleague on Friday. We both felt that it was so stressful to read news these days, and the stress might push us to do things (eat more, etc.) that can reinforce the stress. Here is a great list of not-to-dos to avoid a bad day. A few more to add:
- stay in meetings all day
- fail to try or learn something new
- not meditate for the day
- not laugh till noon
To the last point, laugh is the solution to all sufferings.
⏰ On the use of a life One of the great genius who created Tarsnap, a secure online backup service for Unix platforms, responded to a HackereNews comment “Okay, so, what do we think about TarSnap? Dude was obviously a genius, and spent his time on backups instead of solving millennium problems. I say that with the greatest respect. Is this entrepreneurship thing a trap? ” in good length:
In short, academic institutions systemically promote exactly the sort of short-term optimization of which, ironically, the private sector is often accused. Is entrepreneurship a trap? No; right now, it’s one of the only ways to avoid being trapped.
No, entrepreneurship is the only way to avoid being trapped currently.
🎯 Big vision, little start shows how Elon Musk did it:
SpaceX
Start: Put satellites in orbit
Someday: Colonize Mars
Tesla
Start: Make an electric McLaren for people with private jets
Someday: Electrify transportation
The Boring Company
Start: Move people across big convention centers
Someday: End traffic
Neuralink
Start: Make Parkinson’s more manageable
Someday: Blend with AI
💡 It is a great time to start a company now. A long period of social distancing generates lots of opportunities for catching user attentions. The post categorizes user attentions into three modes: Events that span bigger blocks of contiguous time (“Rocks”), micro events that take advantage of attention gaps between or during those blocks (“Sand”), and things that can overlay over the other two (“Water”). Social distancing is pulverizing offline rocks.
🦠 162 benefits of coronavirus lists an ever growing list (now 183) of benefits that coronavirus brings besides the harms everyone agrees on. It is a more optimistic way to look at changes right now. For me, the best thing the pandemic brings is the dedicated family time with my kid and a better sticked exercise routine. For the six months sheltered in place, I lost 15 pounds.
📖 At a Loss for Words argues how the idea of relying on graphical cues for reading is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers. I am not a language nor education expert. But, I care a lot about how to teach my kid about learning. To me, building vocabulary is a précised process. It also has network effect. The more you know, the faster you will learn. It is important to leverage different cues to memorize a word.
Phonics instruction was seen as tedious, time-consuming and ultimately unnecessary. Why? Because — according to the three-cueing theory — readers can use other, more reliable cues to figure out what the words say.
Phonics is where I spent lots of time on with my kid these days. It is also fun.
Quote
The measure of wealth is freedom
by Naval on Twitter
The measure of health is lightness.
The measure of intellect is judgment.
The measure of wisdom is silence.
The measure of love is peace.
Thanks for reading!
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