Personal Statement on Coronavirus and Personal Brand Update

I take it back. For everyone who has been telling me I was spreading misformation about coronavirus weeks, if not months ago, that I was overreacting, that I needed to just "chill out" and "relax" everything is fine, and that I would "stop posting about coronavirus because I just need to code so whatever," forget it, just get used to me posting about it. If you don't want to read my updates, just unfollow me or please unfriend me, you're not helping anyone by going out and not social distancing (going out to clubs, bars, crowded ass parties, and saying you're young and would get better if you got it so who cares, is not social distancing)...this is just insensitive and disrespectful to like human beings (and animals/pets) in a time when many states have made it mandatory during our national public health crisis.I don't want to spend my energy on convincing these people anymore that the threat is real and was stressed about it for 2 weeks wondering why people wouldn't cancel their damn events already.

To be honest, I feel like people who don't do social distancing = indirectly potentially killing people, vs. social distancing = indirectly saving people's lives even without going to the frontlines and being a doctor or a nurse. The most you're being asked to do is work from home and watch Netflix all day, get everything on demand from Amazon and text your friends instead of see them in-person. Seriously, how hard is this people? I don't get it. If I had a wedding, I would also put that off unfortunately because as important and special my special day would be, I don't anyone to get sick and die, especially all my favorite people in the world and loved ones.

I will be relaunching my blog in the next week. I've put this off for over a year, and even after releasing my book because I had too much personal stuff going on with my family to be able sit down and code and design clearly without getting interrupted with a mini-crisis every few days. Now that we are in an actually REAL crisis as a society and I can sit down, not go to conferences, and not have an excuse to be like "put x y z new shiny tech thing" I can get my thoughts out. Until that's launched, I'll be sharing here and on LinkedIn articles. Medium will be last as I believe in having both Medium, but my own blog first, which needs a functionality that allows other people to blog for my non-profit (so I have been trying to code a code base with multiple features that push to 3 different websites, not including work on AR VR AI and blockchain, this is why the work never seems like I can finish, but I hope to finish a ton by the end of the month, or at least when some of the mandatory policies for social distancing are over that I should be working more FT/PT then and on my next book at least by myself before bringing in other folks because I've learned in recent weeks I have even more to say about my own perspective rather jointly with others or collaborative, that I am investing a ton more into my own brand. I'll be starting 2 new email lists as well and will share when those are there, one focused on emerging tech, another for me personally.

Here are 3 things I've done that I've have contributed to the "cause" to help prevent further spread of coronavirus directly for the communities I care about the most (outside of my own direct family, significant others, and close friends who I've called, texted, and emailed about the issue):

Professional

1) I moved my entire Asia book tour for O'Reilly Media Creating AR and VR to next year. I'm proud the book is circulating over 2 dozen countries and will be translated into Chinese (was supposed to be this April) and Korean (this is supposed to be May) this year. I decided months ago that I would skip on April (had emailed the Philippine govt about this as I was trying to do R&D ont he startup ecosystem in the Philippines surrounding emerging tech with my friend, Monika Jo, whose claim to fame outside of being an amazing marketing expert and OG in VR (Virtual Reality), is she's the first bride and wedding producer in VR. and maybe do November, now not likely to happen. I was slated to fly to the Philippines the 1st two week so April and also go to China, as my book was to be released that month in Chinese--and no I did not pick the pangolin on the book cover, and it is not related to my last name. And, please, stop all the xenophobia against all Asian and Asian American people and the hate and racism we've seen, coronavirus does not care about your race, your gender, or your age very much, it makes people sick and people have died from it so seriously, please need to stop. For Asian Americans who want to report Crimes Against Asians, DM/direct message me and I'll add you to the group. Also follow #AsianVoicesMatter and lmk if you want to help support things like the Asian American Journalists Association AAJA MediaWatch group - I'll be contacting folks in the future about how I personally will be getting more involved in this effort. I wasn't really contributing as a journalist writing about being Asian American or Filipina American or cause-based policy issues as I did for 7 years, my first book I released was mostly focused on technical, product design, and business use cases for the vertical I work in for emerging tech.

The next 4 books I'm writing

My next 3 books (outside of one on the history of FilipinX American in tech, another that is a fictional work I've shelved and had composed at 17 that I will derive a treatment/film script for, and another on computational design and development and polymaths/hybrid), the other I am currently debating on practical thoughts given the state of emerging tech without using the word "ethics." I'm really thinking deeply about what are technical and design considerations to improving society as a whole, not to the detriment of humanity and challenges we face that are more complex than #optout or #letshateonevery single person working complicity in the system so let's #deleteteverytechcompany while tweeting this on Twitter ona tech platform...bc #capitalism and I hate all income inequality so I will live like it's 1950, is not helpful or bringing us closer to any progress or evolving as a species. I'm not writing a manifesto or a prescription for all standards or calling to boycott all these other tech companies who honestly are doing some good for the world,bbut I'm also not naive to know that there are some real problems not only with the design of our tehc products, and as well as the structures of inequality that exist in society. trying to tackle both in a revolution or promoting anarchy is not a productive use of time or conversation as it excludes most people and I do consider myself progressive, just also realistic and practical. I am attempting to write something meaningful that does more than describe what's going on (I'm not going to go "ethnic studies" on you without a component of community action and instead make it seem like the world is ending, this doesn't help people at all, by just complaining and describing problems, there needs to be more done).

Community

2) Move my non-profit, FASTER - Filipino Americans in Science Technology Engineering Arts + Math (FASTER-Silicon Valley)'s annual conference, FASTERCON to virtual-first and online for FilipinX American HXStory Month in October.

See my official statement here:

https://bit.ly/FASTERCOVIDES

We are working on initiatives for supporting the Philippines as well as FilipinX Americans. If you want to be a beta tester on mobile applications or give feedback to other young Pinay developers, fill out this form to join our FASTER Coronavirus Working Group here:

https://bit.ly/FASTERPICOVID19

We hope we can also eventually raise money for testkits for those that need them if this is an issue, for vaccine R&D if appropriate, translate infographics if not design them in language.

All the time I've spent on this the last few weeks since having a billion conferences cancelled (see here), two of which I was to speak at, I either convinced folks to cancel and move online, other events were rescheduled (as I encouraged them to do), and all of them that hadn't eventually did as a response to mandatory policy by the government, school, business, or sports association. tl;dr: I'm not crazy if everyone is cancelling everything.

Other Professional Work

3) If you're out there still not understanding what social distancing is, literally I feel like I've been trying to help save people's lives indirectly, while others who may be super ignorant, are potentially 'killing' other people's lives indirectly. I didn't want to tell people what to do, I felt judged and a lot of hate. I also felt insulted people would ever accuse me of misinformation, being a journalist for over 7 years and working in civic engagement for over 5 years, now working in tech working on things like understanding "ethics' in relation to AI (Artificial Intelligence), Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR + VR), and blockchain, literally everything I've been accustomed to posting has to be fact-based "I know" x y z truth, not just "I feel like x y z' emotion in terms of an informed opinion.

Things I recommend reading if only 3 things (whether you're a scientist or not, because there's so much to read out there, else I'd point you to two more twitter threads that talk about a professor at Harvard talking about the virus, whose work is on extending life and ending cancer, and the other that has first hand accounts in Italy that their hospital system is overwhelmed, I can post that later).

1) This is a great post by Mark Manson, who wrote the book The Subtle Art of not Giving a F*ck. If you don't believe me at all for anything that I say, but want to read someone you believe is more sane, here you go below. He also highlights two articles that are good:

2) "Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now

Politicians, Community Leaders and Business Leaders: What Should You Do and When?"

by Tom Pueyo, VP Growth CourseHero (Stanford alum, MBA and Enginere)

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

https://bit.ly/TomPCV19

3) CORONAVIRUS: THE REAL RISKS AND HUMAN BIASES BEHIND THE PANIC

The 2020 freakout over the coronavirus reveals a few fascinating human biases, which tend to make us terrible at handling risk.

by Mark Manson

https://bit.ly/mmCV19

Excerpt from Mark Manson's email:

"Fear Can Be Useful

Welcome to another edition of Motherf*ckin’ Monday, the only weekly newsletter that kills more germs than hand sanitizer. Each week, I break down three important ideas that will hopefully make you a slightly less awful person. This week we’re talking: 1) the joys of being quarantined, 2) when fear is actually useful, and 3) how to grow from your pain.

Let’s dive in!

(Note: If you get a lot out of this newsletter, please consider forwarding it to people you know and asking them to sign up. It’s easy and comes with a free bottle of hand sanitizer… okay, maybe it doesn’t. But still…)

1. See you when the apocalypse is over - By the time you read this, my wife and I will be locked in our house with about a month’s worth of food and supplies. That might make me sound like I’m the mayor of Crazy Town, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the most logical and responsible thing any of us can do right now.

Probably the most famous message from my books is that we should "only give a fuck about what is true and important." From weeks of steady research, it’s my opinion that coronavirus is one of the most important events of our lifetimes.

Those who have read me for a long time know that I avoid discussing politics or current events. You know I hate getting swept up in the latest hype. But no matter how much I read and think about this situation, the conclusion seems unavoidable. This year is going to be incredibly difficult for all of us, all over the world.

In my opinion, there are two articles that are mandatory reading on this subject. Please take the time to go through them:

This piece gets into the math. The short answer: social distancing and isolation is not only effective but mandatory. For everybody. But especially for older and more vulnerable people. Each additional day we wait to isolate ourselves will have a vast impact on thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of lives. It’s better to do it too soon rather than too late.

This piece argues for the moral responsibility incumbent on all of us to limit contagion as much as possible. As I mentioned in last week’s email, the greatest danger of coronavirus is not the virus itself but the over-burdening of the hospital systems.

Please read them both. It’s important.

I’m fortunate. I work from home. Everyone on my team works from home. We all have the means to stock up on food and supplies. We have comfortable places to stay.

Obviously, not everybody is as fortunate. Many people are living month-to-month, living with elderly relatives, running large physical businesses with huge staffs. In these cases, social distancing will be difficult, if not impossible.

Yet, I encourage everyone reading this to take measures to do it. The risk here is asymmetrical. If this coronavirus thing ends up not being a big deal, then you will simply miss some work and maybe look like a kook for a couple of weeks. But if it is a big thing, then you’ve just protected the health of yourself, your family, your co-workers, and countless people around you.

There’s a lot to gain in being right and little to lose in being wrong. Therefore, I go with assuming the worst: that this thing will be as bad as the numbers suggest."