RWL #177 - Coronatime, Visualization, Ships, & etc.
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire - Forward Operating Base Last Homely House (FOB LHH)! I finally made my first foray out onto the river yesterday. It was an overcast, muggy morning, but I took my kayak, The Lavender Lady, out for a two hour paddle up and down the Oyster River. It was a high-tide paddle, which I do not enjoy as much because you don’t see the same amount of wildlife activity as you do at low-tide, but it was still great to be back on the water (we’re close enough to the ocean here that the river is tidal and brackish). Two hours of mild physical exertion combined with being in nature is truly refreshing. I purchased a light weight wetsuit with the idea that I would start paddling earlier this year, but honestly I chickened out. I hope to use the wetsuit in the fall to extend my paddling into November. We’ll see.
Read
What: Wired, There Are No Hours or Days in Coronatime
https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-time-warp-what-day-is-it/
Why: There will be so many social science studies coming out of the pandemic. Economists love to use natural experiments where some external (exogenous) shock triggers a sudden change to compare before and after the change. Here’s one observation we’ve probably all been feeling - the warping of subjective time. From the article:
“A “quarantine paradox,” if you will, might apply the same logic. Days spent shut indoors might feel long but add up to very little in hindsight, making the months of repeat routines feel very short. Those who are on the frontlines of the crisis, meanwhile, may find their days moving at breakneck speed, but find each passing month longer than the last, as each memory stacks up against the next. Unmoored from the usual rhythms of our daily lives, time feels elastic, stretching infinitely ahead and then, without warning, snapping back.”
What: Bloomberg, Italy’s Economic Rot Is Europe’s Problem, Too
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-14/italy-s-economic-rot-is-europe-s-problem-too
Why: As I go along through my various feeds, I clip articles in my RWL file so at the end of the week all I have to do is go back through and find the right pieces I want to share. Unfortunately I wind up with a big backlog. I was cleaning out some of the older pieces that don’t seem timely this morning and came across this piece by economist Tyler Cowen, who you all know I am a fan of. The article is from last summer, almost a year (and seemingly, a lifetime) ago. I had just returned from Italy myself.
The article focuses on a lack of economic growth in Italy. “One striking fact about Italy is that, over the last 20 years, growth in per capita income has been close to zero. Thatʼs not a recession, rather itʼs become the normal state of affairs.” I love Italy. My father is an immigrant from a tiny island off of Sicily. I still have family in the north and south of the country. So I pay attention to economic, and sometimes the political, fortunes of the country. Sadly, Italy is a rotting country. Most young people who have aspirations leave the country. It is stagnated by a culture of overregulation and rent seeking.
Like the reports we were getting in March that we were “10 days behind Milan” as the Corona Virus progressed inexorably across the United States, I fear Italy is our economic future as well. Cowen cites, among other things the fact that Italy had a debt to GDP ratio of 132%, an indication of a failing economy. As I posted not long ago, with the $3T stimulus that will be funded by debt, the United States’ debt ratio is now around 120%. Our economic growth has slowed to 1-2% per year, which is not as bad as Italy, but our debt-funded spending far exceeds that, with a result that the numerator (debt) is growing much faster than the denominator (GDP). If the US had more rapid economic growth, the ratio could naturally fall back to a more respectable 30-40%. But that’s not where we are. My fear is my grandchildren will be like today’s Italian children - leaving our country to find opportunity.
(I recommend Cowen’s book Stubborn Attachments, in which he makes a moral case for economic growth.)
Watch
What: : Kevin Connolly at TEDxBozeman, The aesthetics of prosthetics
Why: Connolly was born without legs. In this TED Talk, he argues we need to change the paradigm of prosthetics and get rid of the parameter that prosthetics have to help the individual look “normal”. Connolly gives several arguments in favor of getting rid of the normal parameter. First is the fact that normal may impede functionality, and the priority should be to enable. Second is the design should be easy and cheap to repair so that maintenance doesn’t become another limitation.
What: Ashley Fell | TEDxUniMelb, Why storytelling is so powerful in the digital era
Why: Fell makes a strong argument for data visualization, but arguing that good data visualization involves story telling. She argues that our brains are better at processing visual data than anything else. I was doing an interview for the Health Leader Forge this week with my business school colleague, Vanessa Druskat, who teaches team emotional intelligence and she brought up the point that as social animals, we process something like 11 million bits of visual data each second, most of which are meant to gauge the emotional landscape around us. The take away from Fell is that presenting data needs to be coupled with a story-telling approach that includes color and movement, and I will add, emotion.
Listen
What: a16z podcast, Of Container Ships, Supply Chains, and Retail
https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/container-ships-supply-chains-retail-more-n2WYpWJ_
Why: I read Levinson's "The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger" 10 or so years ago and it blew me away. It's amazing how one relatively simple technology helped transform the world in my lifetime. Check out this interview with the author - his discussion of shipping containers starts at about the 17 minute mark. I would argue the integration of transportation and communication revolutions together is what has made our world what it is today.
What: Ad lib, The Pandemic Paradox
http://adageadlib.adage.libsynpro.com/the-pandemic-paradox
Why: I just started listening to Ad Age’s new podcast, Ad Lib. The podcast is mostly about how brand managers should respond to the pandemic. It’s an interesting discussion through a lens other than political. In particular they focus on the idea that the pandemic is helping overcome shifts to e-commerce that had been held up by old behaviors. To use economics jargon - we have a system with multiple equilibria and we were stuck at one, perhaps because of old, physical infrastructure. Now we are “getting a glimpse of the future” as guest Prabhu says, as the barriers to shifting to an alternate, more e-commerce-centric equilibria are removed. Hard to believe we weren’t already an e-commerce centric economy, but I think it’s true. How many old school retailers seem to be on the ropes and dying? Will there be any malls left after this? Who wants to shop in recycled air?
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line at mark.bonica@unh.edu , or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
See you next Friday!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
'It is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, that keep the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.' - Gandalf (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey)