Love in the Time of Corona

Back in 1999, I was running my first tech company, and also completing my junior year at Yale. So, on the one hand, I was closely following all of the tech news (and the related tech industry apocalypse prep and panic) around the Y2K bug, while, on the other, living most of my daily life surrounded by people blithely unaware of the impending potential crisis.

Of course, in the case of Y2K, all that worry ended with a whimper rather than a bang; the new year rolled in almost entirely problem free. So, admittedly, that ‘boy who cried wolf’ lesson is a bit on my mind these days, as I’ve been following news on Twitter about the growing COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet, unlike with Y2K, where the threat was entirely theoretical beforehand, here we already have concrete evidence of a serious disaster unfolding. Reading about the situation in Italy, and seeing how closely the spread of the disease in the U.S. seems to be following precisely the same path, simply two weeks behind and with no substantial attempts to intervene in changing that curve, has been more than a bit worrisome.

And especially so, given the logistics of my life here in NYC. First, the city is incontrovertibly a hot-spot for the disease. And, second, working with fitness clients live to test out Composite programs, I end up on the subway to and from Midtown Manhattan daily, then spend hours a day standing next to people who are breathing heavily, as well as picking up and handing off to them weights and equipment that dozens of others have handled in the hours before. So, basically, about as far from the advised ‘social distancing’ as humanly possible.

At some point, I could put all of my live training and testing on hold, retreat back to the Upper West Side, and simply send digital programs to clients to bang out at home on their own. But, as I haven’t really built the logistics to handle that yet, the move would likely come at a big cost, both in terms of dollars and progress.

So, in short, I have absolutely no idea what to do at the moment. Keep slogging ahead? Give it a few more days and then roll up the drawbridge? Or get outta Dodge right this second?

As I weigh it all out, the Y2K experience is still in my brain, but so is the news unfurling across my Twitter feed, as well as an understanding that people tend to wildly underestimate the power of exponential growth. All of which, together, makes me think I’m already maybe pushing my luck. But, possibly, doesn’t make me think that strongly enough to yet take real and drastic action.

In the meantime, puzzling through, and sending healthy vibes my readers’ way.