Live data from Hacker News

90% economy, 120% gastronomy: Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good

economist.com

51–60 of 76 posts

Re: 90% economy, 120% gastronomy: Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good

#51

"Covid-19 seems to have changed [x] for good" is not worth reading, for all values of x, until we have gotten to a post-pandemic environment. It's like saying, in the seconds or even days after a car crash, that the car crash has changed your driving styles for good. Wayyyyyy too early to say.

Yep, some of these predictions are outright comical. "has covid ended handshakes forever" or "will we ever go back to bars?". Bars and handshakes have survived thousands of years of pandemics. I get that people always tend to think their moment in history is particularly special, but I'm just gonna say if the black death didn't do something in this won't either

> Yep, some of these predictions are outright comical. "has covid ended handshakes forever" or "will we ever go back to bars?".

I agree. Do people think it's really a good idea to always be coddling your immune system? If this were to happen, the next pandemic will probably be far worse. Just saw a study that says that having the cold recently could help your immune system fight covid-19. Of course I don't know how accurate it is, but the one thing I do know is that nobody fully understands covid and how the immune system handles it.

Re: 90% economy, 120% gastronomy: Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good

#52
post #34

"Covid-19 seems to have changed [x] for good" is not worth reading, for all values of x, until we have gotten to a post-pandemic environment. It's like saying, in the seconds or even days after a car crash, that the car crash has changed your driving styles for good. Wayyyyyy too early to say.

Your point is true for some, but I dispute 'all values of x'. Post-pandemic, yes, some items from that page are going to return to pre-pandemic numbers, I'm sure - hangover, restaurant, ticket, etc. But for people who've discovered that stuff they grow at home - from herbs on the balcony to tomatoes in the yard - taste much better, are unlikely to just forget that. Similarly people discovering this year that they enj…

> But for people who've discovered that stuff they grow at home - from herbs on the balcony to tomatoes in the yard - taste much better, are unlikely to just forget that.

That is, until everyone has to go back to working in offices etc, and they realise they don't have time to maintain a garden any more.

Re: 90% economy, 120% gastronomy: Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you and I’ve been repeating this point to my close circle, though this article did (for the first time) make me sort of excited to see what will stick, if anything. Take the searches for yeast and recipe, for example. I don’t think its totally farfetched to imagine that a sizeable handful of people have wondered, maybe for the first time, how to bake things like bread and cookies or how to make meatballs…

I agree with the general feeling of promoting home cooked food and having/learning the skill set for it. However, specifically on the bread making aspect, we should probably do some back of the napkin estimations before supporting this more long term. One good thing about a bakery is that it uses huge ovens, in which multiples trays of bread are baked, at the same time, with minimal dead space. Contrast that with the…

The future of home electric power is renewable power such as rooftop photovoltaic, so maybe the change's carbon impact tracks the trend of the rest of home carbon impact? Efficiency at a community level should be considered, but it should be considered while looking at all the trends.

Re: 90% economy, 120% gastronomy: Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good

#54
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point is true for some, but I dispute 'all values of x'. Post-pandemic, yes, some items from that page are going to return to pre-pandemic numbers, I'm sure - hangover, restaurant, ticket, etc. But for people who've discovered that stuff they grow at home - from herbs on the balcony to tomatoes in the yard - taste much better, are unlikely to just forget that. Similarly people discovering this year that they enj…

> But for people who've discovered that stuff they grow at home - from herbs on the balcony to tomatoes in the yard - taste much better, are unlikely to just forget that. That is, until everyone has to go back to working in offices etc, and they realise they don't have time to maintain a garden any more.

I expect there to be at least some long term effect. Some number of folks are probably going to switch to work from home semi permanently. Not having to spend all those hours commuting is bound to have some effect.

Re: 90% economy, 120% gastronomy: Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good

#55
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point is true for some, but I dispute 'all values of x'. Post-pandemic, yes, some items from that page are going to return to pre-pandemic numbers, I'm sure - hangover, restaurant, ticket, etc. But for people who've discovered that stuff they grow at home - from herbs on the balcony to tomatoes in the yard - taste much better, are unlikely to just forget that. Similarly people discovering this year that they enj…

Not saying "not true for all values of x", I'm claiming "not worth reading for all values of x", because it's way too soon to make predictions about what will stick and what won't. I could imagine that _something_ will stick, I just don't think the Economist or anyone else is going to be any good at predicting what.

I guess TFA doesn't think there's a constraint on how soon they can offer up some predictions based on google search words.

> I just don't think the Economist or anyone else is going to be any good at predicting what.

So your early prediction is that their early predictions are going to be wrong? ; )

Re: 90% economy, 120% gastronomy: Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good

#56

"Covid-19 seems to have changed [x] for good" is not worth reading, for all values of x, until we have gotten to a post-pandemic environment. It's like saying, in the seconds or even days after a car crash, that the car crash has changed your driving styles for good. Wayyyyyy too early to say.

Yep, some of these predictions are outright comical. "has covid ended handshakes forever" or "will we ever go back to bars?". Bars and handshakes have survived thousands of years of pandemics. I get that people always tend to think their moment in history is particularly special, but I'm just gonna say if the black death didn't do something in this won't either

> Bars and handshakes have survived thousands of years of pandemics.

Most of those thousands of years we had no clue such things could spread diseases.

Re: 90% economy, 120% gastronomy: Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good

#57

"Covid-19 seems to have changed [x] for good" is not worth reading, for all values of x, until we have gotten to a post-pandemic environment. It's like saying, in the seconds or even days after a car crash, that the car crash has changed your driving styles for good. Wayyyyyy too early to say.

Yep, some of these predictions are outright comical. "has covid ended handshakes forever" or "will we ever go back to bars?". Bars and handshakes have survived thousands of years of pandemics. I get that people always tend to think their moment in history is particularly special, but I'm just gonna say if the black death didn't do something in this won't either

I'm not sure bars existed in the times of Black Death. I learned recently that a sit down restaurant with a menu is a relatively new thing. Two hundred years or so. Plus minus a few decades.

Your point still stands though. I just thought I would point that out as I found it somewhat interesting because for a long time I had assumed that restaurant business was much older than that.

Re: 90% economy, 120% gastronomy: Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good

#59

"Covid-19 seems to have changed [x] for good" is not worth reading, for all values of x, until we have gotten to a post-pandemic environment. It's like saying, in the seconds or even days after a car crash, that the car crash has changed your driving styles for good. Wayyyyyy too early to say.

I'm finding a sudden interest in reading letters/diaries from during WWII, when people didn't have the benefit of hindsight.

It's true that people don't have the same information and perspective as they will later, but time also warps and obscures aspects of a period when history is being made.

Re: 90% economy, 120% gastronomy: Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good

#60
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, some of these predictions are outright comical. "has covid ended handshakes forever" or "will we ever go back to bars?". Bars and handshakes have survived thousands of years of pandemics. I get that people always tend to think their moment in history is particularly special, but I'm just gonna say if the black death didn't do something in this won't either

I'm not sure bars existed in the times of Black Death. I learned recently that a sit down restaurant with a menu is a relatively new thing. Two hundred years or so. Plus minus a few decades. Your point still stands though. I just thought I would point that out as I found it somewhat interesting because for a long time I had assumed that restaurant business was much older than that.

Restaurants have existed for millennia. It's just that you didn't get to choose what you ate. It was whatever the cook had lots of that day.
Post reply on HN