Some things can appear, at first glance, to be all downside. Take jobs, for example (and Covid is indeed taking millions). Every job lost is another demoralised individual, another hard-up family – not to mention more red ink on the national accounts.
The question is – and here we must borrow from a canonical tome in the history of the labour struggle – what is to be done?
It is clear that governments – in the US, UK and Europe – are going to have to wrestle with this long after the coronavirus has been vaccinated into submission. But with public debt soaring to formidable levels, it is also clear that they will have their hands tied.
Which is why we at the Upside are particularly fascinated by those trying to take matters into their own hands by starting a new businesses in lockdown. Maybe that’s you? Or someone you know? Maybe you have half an idea and want to bounce it off us. If so, do get in touch. We’d love to pull together a feature on the inspiring people who’ve spotted a niche and gone for it.
As a spot of encouragement, check out the successful companies launched during the last 14 major recessions.
Otherwise, this week we were greatly cheered by:
• 56 great ways to beat the boredom of lockdown. Weeks of ideas
• And a 57th: the crazy new trend of ice bathing. Three-minute read, three-minute dip
• What can astronauts teach us about coping with confinement. 30-minute podcast
• An illuminating response to Covid in New York’s Chinatown. Four-minute read
• And rather gratuitously this is sweet: the £20,000 Bernie Sanders crocheted doll. One-minute fluffball
Lucky numbers
US hospitalisations are finally starting to fall, according to data collated by the Atlantic.
More than 200m printed books were sold in the UK in 2020, the highest number for eight years.
What we liked
We were intrigued by this piece in the Sydney Morning Herald about the world’s first domestic hydrogen battery, (thanks to Sarah for drawing our attention to this).
We loved the futuristic sleep pods for homeless people that have suddenly started appearing in the German city of Ulm (this courtesy the BBC).
And far away from the mainstream, there are a wealth of great specialist blogs on the Substack platform. One of the first I signed up to is by Celine Bijleveld, a former colleague who is now exploring how to reinvent herself midcareer. Great for all of you wondering what to do with the rest of your lives, which is basically all of you.
What we heard
Danja Derkenne wrote in with a story of slow recovery from last year bushfires in New South Wales.
I have survivor guilt. Many in my direct locality, and in the region lost everything in the fires … we lost some infrastructure, and nearly all paddocks crisped … but our energies have turned to growing stuff back, growing a food forest, and regenerating rainforest. It’s always been my dream to plant trees, and now I can. We’ve had excellent help from volunteer uni students, advice from local Landcare, help from Land Services, sharing plants with generous neighbours …..the delight in growing a green block back is my heart’s delight. It is really good news. And we have wombats! We have reptiles! We have bees and butterflies!
Alexandros Papadopoulos got in touch from London to salute several big tech privacy developments, such as this, this and this.
In an era of flourishing surveillance capitalism (see book by Shoshana Zuboff), even a small crack in the dominance of the large surveillance platforms (Google, Facebook) is a step in the right direction and something to celebrate. Why? Because it helps demonstrate to the next generation that privacy-preserving communication platforms are not only possible, but in fact fully functional and here now. This will hopefully dampen the boiling frog effect – people accepting even more abusive/hostile terms and conditions for online platforms, simply because “there is no choice”. Yes, there is!
Where was the Upside?
In north London, at the new Frozen Veggie Food Bank which opened its doors this week. It guarantees all visitors frozen veg and plant-based meals.
