Coding in Covid

Last commit: Feb 3, 2020

My last blog entry ended with:

Part of the fun of reworking a blog is riding the enthusiasm wave to make yourself actually write more posts. I'm hoping I'll be able to do so in the coming year!

Little did he know.

In February of 2020, in the little coding freetime I had outside of work, I was just wrapping up style fixes and post content on my new blog. I was also keeping an eye on the news about the "novel coronavirus". Honestly, it's hard to remember how alarmed I was or wasn't at the time. I recall a growing sense of concern, even as we took a family vacation to Florida for the first time later that month, and had conversations at work that will no doubt sound familiar ("I don't think it's going to be any worse than the flu", "I'm not really concerned", etc...)

The power of the status quo really encourages us to keep moving forward, even with strange events unfolding. But in March, we could maintain the status quo no more, and our working lives changed dramatically. Our team at work converted from in-office to fully remote overnight (without even missing a client demo that week!). Since that bizarre Monday of getting our workstations setup in basements, play rooms and kitchens, our team has stayed fully remote, and has been pretty successful in doing so.

But there's no denying that Covid hit our lives like a ton of bricks, and has taken an amazing toll on mental health, time, energy, relationships, existential hope... Yeah, it's been a hard year.

So hard, in fact, that I legitimately forgot about my new blog. When, at long last, I revisited my Github in December, I chuckled when I saw that my last commit was from February 3rd.

Working from Home

Some folks have asked, "How do you like working from home?"

However, the question is really "How do you like working from home in the middle of a pandemic?". They are, I imagine, very different. I certainly can't separate my experience of remote work from the glob of isolation, hopelessness, and monotony of life in quarantine. All things considered, I'm amazed how accustomed to it I've become, and how accustomed others seem to be as well. I have a lot of collective appreciation for the human ability to adapt.

But in many ways, I'm privelaged in my ability to do so. I have a secure job throughout a pandemic that has seen mass unemployment. My family has stayed safe social distancing, while (unlike my remote work) many frontline workers continue to put their lives on the line to do their jobs. We've also seen a shock to our democratic institutions unlike anything we've ever experienced before. There is no gauge of normalcy in this time.

Thoughts on 2021

What effect has 2020 had on all of us? I know I feel more radicalized (admittedly in some of the most mundane ways). I no longer feel shy about acknowledging injustice (which incidentally means my twitter has gotten more "political"). I've become more forthcoming with my friends, family, and coworkers when it comes to talking about mental health and the difficulties of our current time. I've always hoped to use my skills as a programmer for the "greater good" somehow, and 2020 has only made that feeling stronger. I feel a great urgency to be engaged and stay engaged, to help make a difference in this wacky world.

I don't know what to expect in 2021, but I do expect to be engaged. As a small part of that, I'm excited to finally get my blog up after a year of neglect. Maybe my "enthusiasm wave" going into 2020 can be rekindled for 2021. Here's to giving it a shot, anyway!