Ask HN: Problems to solve in a post-virus world?

2 points·cloudking··3 comments

What are new problems to solve in the aftermath of the Coronavirus?

I'm with samizdis on this one. Covid is a black swan event. Solving problems unique to it (like toilet paper and ventilator shortages, mass work from home implementation, etd.) is probably an economic non-starter as a result. Instead we should be looking at solving the other problems that it exposed globally:

- Fragility of single-country supply chains

- Lack of a real social safety nets in many countries

- Lack of focus on personal hygiene on a day-to-day basis

- Non-sustainability of debt-based economic growth

- Lack of childcare choices for many families, especially when both parents have to work to pay the bills

- Disconnect between local wages and local cost of living in many cities for non-rich workers

Etc.

Call me old-fashioned, but how about using the covid-19 crisis and its eventual aftermath to reflect on how we might solve the existing problems that plague us? Inequality, injustice, poverty and all the other usual suspects.

Too complex for our 7 inch diameter heads.

Enough data has accumulated in the last 20 years about our cognitive limitations. Which seem to compound as we construct groups and networks.

So "spreading freedom" fails, mass leaking info fails, "hope and change" fails, "self regulation" fails, bernie/corbyn et al bite the dust etc etc.

We need to reprove we can solve simpler problems, at smaller scales first. Those kind of people and groups are the ones I trust these days.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com