Hello 2022 — Uncertainty Excelsior!
I said goodbye’s to 2021 yesterday. Now, its time to welcome the new year. As the title implies, I have stopped assuming that anything will go as per plan. Most of the time, pre-pandemic, things have been going, almost exactly like how I planned.
I am a notoriously meticulous planner. Planning every step, every detail at the micro level.
However, the last 2 years, have taught me that, in this new world we are living, that is no longer possible. Change is the only constant, as the good book says. So, I change. Change with the times. Just like the James Bond movies.
I am not throwing away all of my plans. I am still planning. However, I am introducing an element of uncertainty to them. Uncertainty was always part of all plans. That is the 101 of plan making. However, it was given it’s due percentage. Now, Uncertainty is the first thing in mind when I make a new plan. All of my plans now have anywhere from 50 % to 90 % of uncertainty.
If you already assume that a lot of bad things will happen (and for the last 2 years, things have been leaning more towards worse than good), when they do happen, you are less disappointed. Easier to pick up the leftovers and move on to the next step.
I continue to find it more and more difficult to communicate on a basic level with most people. The pandemic has made most folks, even more unreasonable, not more sensible or logical. If anything, the pandemic is being weaponized to justify even more non-sense.
This other day, this airbnb host tried to convince me that due to the pandemic, he no longer provides drinking water to his paying guests, such as myself. I don’t understand the connection. Why should providing drinking water be a pandemic precaution? It’s just filling up water from the kitchen tap into the water bottle.
How the hell is that a pandemic precaution?
Then, there is the tendency of people to ‘save money’ by going for the cheapest internet plan. Before I agree to work with someone, I always ask a casual zoom or Skype call. If the video connection keeps going slow, buffering and disconnecting or stuttering, I tell them that they have an internet problem.
Most of the time, well, all the time, this happens because, the person is on the cheapest plan possible. And, it’s being shared with everybody in the house! How can $8 internet plan provide a seamless video call experience with screen sharing and files being constantly uploaded and downloaded during the call?
They keep insisting that I ‘compromise’ live with the slow connection, slow downloads and uploads, freezing video and audio. Why should I compromise on something as basic as a video call and screen sharing?
Two years into the pandemic, why are we still cheaping out on internet connection? Spend an extra $10 and get a better internet plan. You cannot possibly be gaining much by saving $10 every month.
Final Note
As the new year begins, I am, even more convinced that people will continue to act less logically than before. I expect more of my plans to collapse. More of my executions to fail horribly. I expect more disasters and more disappointments.
The good thing about the human nature, is that, it becomes numb to pain and joy after a while. There has been so many, non-stop barrage of disappointments for the last 2 years, more such incidents wont hurt me more.
I am not tempting fate though. I do pray to god everyday, that, even though things are not getting better, at least, maintain the status quo. Please dont make it worse like how it was before.
Happy New Year 2022.
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