Brace yourselves — the world may never return to “normal”

I remember the smell of new books, that feeling of opportunity you had after reading those first few crisp pages. I remember the excitement of Blockbuster movie shelves, never quite knowing what you were going to leave with — whether a movie would be good or bad, just accepting it for what it was. I imagine generations before mine felt the same way about trains and live plays, typewriters, ink, phone chords, voice recorders, a fresh newspaper.

With each new wave of technology, there has always been and always will be this sense of nostalgia for what was lost, that human touch, the feeling of it all.

In some ways, I feel that we will leave this “Great Pause” into a world that is completely unlike the one we remember. It’s only been a few months, but this world-wide decentralization has made certain things painfully clear:

• Why do we pay $25k/quarter just to see a live-lecturer?
• Why do we work 5 days per week and 8 hours per day?
• Why do we still commute to work in traffic every day at the same time as everyone else for marginal productivity gains?

It’s sad to say, but I believe not crazy to think that going in person to restaurants and movie theaters may become a novelty much like going to a play is today. Retail stores — the entire idea of a shopping mall — seem silly after all of this, much like Blockbusters now seem silly with Netflix available. Will we continue to go to massive stadiums to watch live-sports or meet people in person for interviews and first dates?

We must brace ourselves, for things may not return to what they were. The nostalgia will be deep, the whiplash sharp — never before has there been this combination of world-wide crisis, rapid technological development, and change.

On the other hand, never before have we had the chance to see a complete economic standstill. We have the opportunity to unmake mistakes that were made, to reinvent the world as we know it — to turn streets into parks, break a Monday to Friday cadence that hasn't been reimagined since the Industrial Revolution, to dramatically improve access to higher education, and to invent new and more interesting jobs for millions of people.

I’m not here to sugarcoat the reality of our situation. These are devastating times for millions of people. Watching the markets rise after 33 million people filed for unemployment in our country is only evidence of the confusion we’re under. I do not discount the pain, uncertainty, and fear that millions feel right now.

And at the same time, I believe we have a tremendous opportunity to reinvent the world economy.

The businesses that realize this will be the ones who survive and prosper in the new world. Businesses must find a way to escape the chaos — to pull heads above stormy waters and observe what is happening. This is no small feat — layoffs, loss of customers, market volatility, maintaining productivity with remote workers. These realities make it near impossible to do anything but go into reaction mode, to hold onto whatever life raft is nearby for dear survival.

But if survival is all you’re doing right now, you may find yourself entering a new world that you are wholly unprepared for.