> 6. Whether it’s OK to go to that thing or not<p>This part really resonated. What a weird year it's been. Finding the right balance between having a social life and being safe + conscientious has proven to be exhausting and depressing.<p>My wife and I have chosen to be super safe and turn down almost all social engagements, even ones with close family who promised to wear masks and social distance. If it wasn't a life or death thing, we felt the "right" thing to do was to host the even on Zoom, or not at all.<p>That decision never came lightly though and missing events with friends and family always weighed on us heavily. We'd never know if we were doing the right thing or if we were being too cautious. Especially when, on Facebook or Instagram, we would see close friends without masks hanging out and partying, while we sequestered ourselves from the rest of the world.<p>It's hard not to have emotions in a situation like that. At times I have felt frustrated, angry, tired, etc. Everyone has a different perspective on this whole thing, a different feeling of risk, and a difference decision about how to behave during it all. I long for the day when we can be human again without having to pass every social decision through some matrix of risk calculation.
"Frequently changing advice from the same public health institutions (remember when the WHO advised against wearing masks?)"<p>One thing that really caught my attention is how reddit went from 'if you wear masks you are overreacting and a bad person' to 'if you don't wear masks you are killing people and a bad person' in a heartbeat.<p>I'm not advocating not wearing masks or anything, I was just surprised how the definition of what was the "obviously" right thing to do changed in a heartbeat without any concern on how diagonally opposite these two advices were.<p>When such opposite advices are given by the same institution I think some skepticism is really useful. (Did they know the previous advice was wrong in which case they lied? Did they not know any better but gave advice anyway? What was the compelling evidence to change their minds?). Again, I think you should wear masks, but the total lack of questioning and the instantaneous change of opinion I saw online was really weird.
I think it is totally reasonable to <i>not</i> be cool calm and collected during a pandemic. It was an incredibly stressfull experience which means it is excusable to be not collected anyway. I would argue that it is also okay to not be happy during the pandemic because your emotions are a useful barometer for the state of your world. If your world is dangerous, then it is reasonable to be stressed and under a higher alert status than normal. It seems unreasonable to maintain coolness and calm when the situation calls for further action.
Point number 7 is one that I am still learning. I'm at my girlfriend's parent's for lunch and here I am, casually browsing HN with a termux session in the background.
He seemed to have removed the page. Here is the backup:
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210102002234/https://ex-apple-engineer.medium.com/my-experience-apple-5d8b6205cb56" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20210102002234/https://ex-apple-...</a>
I have no issue speaking up when other people’s children are being disruptive during a Zoom meeting.<p>If they can walk, they can learn social protocol.