1 / Reminiscing about the early days of Covid-19
“Time, plus conscious effort infused with moral imagination, enables possibility” — Jacqueline Novogratz
I’ve never been a big reader (much less a writer) but one of my most vivid memories of the past 18 months is heading to the library with my wife and two young kids in the final hours before total lockdown.
Of course, despite borders closing and thousands getting sick each day, none of us knew what was coming at that stage, however after conversations with many senior connections in health & technology, I genuinely believed this may be the beginning of the end.
If the health system collapsed as they had each cautiously predicted it may, it was clear to me that many other government functions would soon follow and that society would never be the same.
I still smile at the books I chose in the final hour before Gold Coast City Council shut down the entire library network due to fears of COVID-19.
The Existentialist’s Survival Guide: How to Live Authentically in an Inauthentic Age
— Gordon Marino
Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World
— Tyson Yunkaporta
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
— Jacqueline Novogratz
The Beginning of Infinity
— David Deutch
Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief
— Eugene G. d'Aquili and Vince Rause
Man’s Search For Meaning
— Viktor Frankl
Along with a big pile of books from the 1970’s about DIY fishing lures, how to tie better knots, 101 Make Believe Games for Kids and probably something about the zombie apocalypse…
Looking back on those early days of toilet paper craziness, I remember thinking ‘If we’re unable to work together due to the virus, the power lines could fall into disrepair or the internet bandwidth will probably get overwhelmed and these books might be all we have’.
Until that point, I had dismissed ideas of penning a book or even writing a blog for nearly a decade.
Why the hell would anyone care what I think about the world when there are so many other brilliant writers and thinkers who spend their lives crafting prose and phrase to help us reflect on the human condition?
Yet here we were, loading two huge boxes full of books into the car, each thinking these may be the last pieces of literature we ever read.
From that moment until now, I told myself it was time to get past the imposter syndrome and realise that every single book in that pile - from The 13 Storey Treehouse to Growing Succulents in the Sub-Tropics - was just someone’s perspective on the world and that without each author having the courage, patience and determination to document their thoughts on a page, we would all be far poorer.
Some things I found interesting this week
1:6.25 scale fully-articulated Lego Minifigure, carved from 3 types of wood
Nice one, Jimbo.
Stockton’s Basic-Income Experiment Pays Off
I’ve been a Universal Basic Income nerd for several years now (I went all the way to the biggest tech event in Finland just to see one session about UBI!) but this social experiment by a small Californian city has delivered some of the most exciting outcomes in decades. As one of the recipients says “The big change was how it helped me see myself. It was dead positive: I am an entrepreneur, I think of business ideas, I make business choices, I want to be financially stable.”
The End of Indie.VC
Speaking of grand experiments, one of my favourites from the past few years has been the rise and fall of Indie.VC, a new way to fund startups somewhere ‘between back loans and blitzscaling’. Sadly, that experiment has now ended due to less and less investors having the appetite for smaller, more sustainable returns.
That’s all for Volume 1.
Thanks for reading 😊
— Murray
