Keep repeating: "This, too, shall pass"
Don't scoff. It's my new mantra. Along with "Don't count your days in shelter, make your days in shelter count". Gives new meaning to the Stones' lyrics.
Along with comfort food, we can always use a feel-good adage these days. How about: "Not every day is good but there is some good in every day. Find it". Too cheesy? Read a book. It really helps. Everybody in tech or not in tech should read The Code. In hardback, not on a screen. Published last summer, it's a thoughtful, comprehensive, lively, vivid history of the first six decades of Silicon Valley. As it has never been told.
If your daily, sheltering-at-home routine these days includes Wi-Fi, a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop and Zoom, you can thank Fred Terman, Bill Shockley, Fairchild Semiconductor, ARPANET and a cast of thousands, most of whom came long before us. Read about why we should care about them. Especially today.
The Code is a reminder that even if the tech pantheon of pioneers never stared down the barrel of a full-blown pandemic, it was their laser-focus resolve and tireless, relentless determination that delivered the technological wherewithal we're deploying right now to stave off the plague of our era, the C19 pandemic. The least we can do is try to emulate their resolute determination to solve today's problems. And to pay them homage.
If you want your inspiration more visceral than intellectual, I suggest The Splendid and the Vile, the harrowing story of how the Brits suffered, endured and triumphed during 1940-41 when the very existence of the civilized world was in real doubt. It will make our current moment of crisis and uncertainty feel far more manageable and remind us that this, too, shall pass. It's comforting.
Lastly, the autobiography of Ken Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot, I Love Capitalism is a wild-ride of a story about the life of one of the most energetically generous--and genuinely humble--people of our time. Don't let the title put you off.
There you go. Three good things, today.