So… I think I expected the lockdown to be a Long Time when it started, and I thought it was worth it (and went into it a bit earlier than others). It seems worth pointing out I have low socialization needs, many of which I meet online, and so I think the tradeoffs for me are a bit different than for others. [It’s been sad to not go to any AIRCS workshops, or do any in-person Circling, or so on, but even in retrospect I think I’d rather not have paid the COVID risk for them. Most of the things that I would do now that seem sensible—like Tai Chi classes in the park—are currently canceled because of local guidelines, such that I don’t have useful decisions to contribute there.]
When I read this, tho, it feels to me like the main difference is something like that between ‘living in fear’ and ‘taking precautions.’ I think I was doing the latter—I decided to not do things in much the way that I would have decided it was too far to travel to the thing, and I sought out ways to find substitutes for things that were too expensive. [Not being able to spend time with my boyfriend in person for the first few months meant experimenting with various ways to spend time with him online, for example.]
The main way in which I think one would put me in the ‘living in fear’ category—deciding to ‘just lock down’ instead of trying to time when based on case counts and so on—is a situation where I think in retrospect I was right (because the case count numbers were incorrect at the time), tho could have expressed my reasoning more clearly.
This also reminds me of how precarious the group house ecosystem is. I think most houses can’t survive long-term at 80-90% capacity, and most people in group houses can’t easily switch to living alone, and there’s not a great mechanism for moving people between houses in a way that is good for longer-term compatibility instead of short-term satisficing. [I think people have considered building a tool for this for many years, but it never seemed worth it / never overcame the coordination barrier, and when we needed it there wasn’t spare capacity to build it and deploy it.] I think the underlying factors keeping people in group houses are here to stay, and so perhaps we should invest more in making things better.
So… I think I expected the lockdown to be a Long Time when it started, and I thought it was worth it (and went into it a bit earlier than others). It seems worth pointing out I have low socialization needs, many of which I meet online, and so I think the tradeoffs for me are a bit different than for others. [It’s been sad to not go to any AIRCS workshops, or do any in-person Circling, or so on, but even in retrospect I think I’d rather not have paid the COVID risk for them. Most of the things that I would do now that seem sensible—like Tai Chi classes in the park—are currently canceled because of local guidelines, such that I don’t have useful decisions to contribute there.]
When I read this, tho, it feels to me like the main difference is something like that between ‘living in fear’ and ‘taking precautions.’ I think I was doing the latter—I decided to not do things in much the way that I would have decided it was too far to travel to the thing, and I sought out ways to find substitutes for things that were too expensive. [Not being able to spend time with my boyfriend in person for the first few months meant experimenting with various ways to spend time with him online, for example.]
The main way in which I think one would put me in the ‘living in fear’ category—deciding to ‘just lock down’ instead of trying to time when based on case counts and so on—is a situation where I think in retrospect I was right (because the case count numbers were incorrect at the time), tho could have expressed my reasoning more clearly.
This also reminds me of how precarious the group house ecosystem is. I think most houses can’t survive long-term at 80-90% capacity, and most people in group houses can’t easily switch to living alone, and there’s not a great mechanism for moving people between houses in a way that is good for longer-term compatibility instead of short-term satisficing. [I think people have considered building a tool for this for many years, but it never seemed worth it / never overcame the coordination barrier, and when we needed it there wasn’t spare capacity to build it and deploy it.] I think the underlying factors keeping people in group houses are here to stay, and so perhaps we should invest more in making things better.