Passing this on from a Facebook post....
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Some people don’t agree with the states opening.... that’s okay. Be kind anyway.

Some people are still planning to stay home.... that’s okay. Be kind anyway.

Some are still scared of getting the virus and a second wave happening....that’s okay. Be kind anyway.

Some are sighing with relief to go back to work knowing they may not lose their business or their homes....that’s okay.
Be kind anyway.

Some are thankful they can finally have a surgery they have put off....that’s okay.
Be kind anyway.

Some will be able to attend interviews after weeks without a job....that’s okay.
Be kind anyway.

Some will wear masks for weeks....that’s okay. Be kind anyway.

The point is, everyone has different viewpoints/feelings and that’s okay. Be kind anyway.

We each have a different story. If you want to stay home, stay home. But be kind anyway. If you want to go out, go. Just respect others when in public and be kind!

Don’t judge fellow humans because you’re not in their story. We all are in different mental states than we were months ago, be kind anyway.

 

The +1 and I were talking about work life this AM and I told him that I did not think we (meaning most workers) were going back to life in the office as we knew it. Telework, teleconferencing, etc is the thing now, like it or not. And I believe that even with a vaccine it won't make much of a difference. Office space vacancies will continue at high rates and whole buildings will have to be reconfigured for other purposes if there are any. Or abandoned altogether. And, of course, I realize my opinion is at odds with others out here. BTW - working differently and maybe smarter is not a bad thing. But it does have repercussions for the economy.

 

WFH is nothing new. The private sector has been moving to that model for years now. This virus will show us both the benefits and the drawbacks to a full WFH model. I suppose it may speed up the conversion process for some, but that is where they were heading anyway. But it doesn't work for every business. I think there will still be office workers in offices. If rents go down a bit, that would be great.

 

Isn't it amazing how many people feel the need to call others "idiots" because they have a different view?

 

I agree that private industry has been moving in the WFH direction, but I got the impression it has not been all that quickly. And I also agree that WFH does not work for all types of business. As for government, movement has been really slow, or at least it was when I was in the workforce. The wheels of government grind slowly for pretty much everything. Also, managers do not trust their employees to actually WFH. Or they want their minions around as a power fix.

 

Social media brings out the worst in humans!

A lot of things I see people ridiculing online about the info we are getting, statistics, new info, etc I think comes down to the following.

People that are not in any way, shape or form scientists, engineers or doctors are upset because of things they summarize as "lies" or "bs" because the info we have changes daily, things the experts hypothecized are found to be incorrect, numbers change daily, solutions are not coming fast enough, etc. So they throw up their hands, they bitch and moan that they are being lied to and that the experts are all idiots. And all that comes down to those people seeing real science happen in real time, which they 100% do not understand. People see way too much BS on TV shows and believe it to be true. They see a pandemic on a tv show and all the experts get in a room and someone tells them "you dont stop until you have a solution" and they all just work through and save the whole world in a few days. This could not be further from reality... may as well be watching any other science fiction and believing it. People scream that "well they told us this yesterday, now they say that... they are idiots or are lying to us" .... ugh...

In reality, science and engineering does not work this way. And some basic truths about the process when working on a novel issue or solution are:
You find far more things wrong in your hypothesis than you do right once you start testing
A good scientist/engineer does not see issue with a hypothesis proven not to be true. Instead, they add this to the list of things we have learned and they change their assumptions based upon this learning (Aka ego does not get in the way here)
You typically find far more failed solutions than successful solutions on a new, novel problem. This is not a failure, these are part of the success of the final solution finding
Verifying any solution typically requires many times more effort than creating said solution
The non-scientists/engineers around the project tend to just slow the whole process down
The non-scientists/engineers that are reporting to the public tend to vastly simplify the information and project a picture that others want to see vs reporting true reality. Typically a very rose colored glasses view. because the public wants answers NOW!

So basically, what we are seeing is not failures by the doctors or scientists, not wishy washy bullshit numbers, but what we call "Science". To anyone working in engineering or scientific fields, this should just look like what you see everyday It is the amateur view fueld by television shows and movies that is off base mostly. There are also outlets that like to project their skew on the data, or simply present hypothesis as known fact. Many times what a scientist tells their superiors is then re-presented with orders of magnitude more confidence than exists.

Politics get in the way and there are of course lots of political motivations that make these things worse ... but most of the doctors and scientists working on this just want to follow the correct process and find a solution. It gets annoying to hear all the whiners online bash on those folks because they didnt solve this issue in a day.

And one more point on this. No, it is not "fair" that some people are out of work and others can still work. It is not "fair" that someones wedding, graduation, etc is cancelled. It is not "fair" what this is going to do to our economy. "Fair" is a human constraint that is unevenly applied and is non-scientific. This is a virus, this is nature. "Fair" does not apply. It does not care what color you are, how old you are, how rich you are or what your life plans are. It sucks royally, but we are grownups and should understand some things happen out of our control. We can only expect that sufficient effort is being placed upon finding solutions. The only other thing we can do is try to prevent govt driven leaders from making decisions that get in the way of a real solution.

 

Well, someone who has the view that s/he can be out in public and not take appropriate precautions to distance him or herself and protect others from possible serious illness is an idiot. But I am reserving the term for those people and not just anyone with a different view.

 

If someone was touching me, sneezing on me or breathing on me, I'd move away. Of course, that is always the case, not just during this time.