Greetings!

I hope you are doing well. As fed up as I am with the never-really-leave-home-or-meet-anyone reality that’s now the new default here in wintery Zurich, I do think we are now finally progressing towards a With/Beyond-Corona World, with multiple and parallel ‘New Normals’ certain to cause considerable confusion and creative chaos in this coming year.

The bottom line is that yes, this pandemic will become manageable, but it won’t ever really disappear. And the next really big challenge is already here: Facing the climate change emergency just like we are facing the virus, with emergency actions, sacrifices, new rules, new technologies and unprecedented (if not always voluntary) collaboration.

!! Covid-19 is just a test-run for climate change !!

We need to embrace the fact that there is no going ‘back to normal’ in terms of how we’ll look at life, business and society, going forward. Our mindset has changed irrevocably. Sure, we’ll (hopefully) go back to bars and restaurants and will even contemplate some business travel again - but the entire context i.e. why, when and how has changed.

The real question is: Where do we go from here? Where do we want to go? We must ask ourselves what kind of future do we want (not just what kind of future we can have), because the good old “Normal” also included those nasty externalities of Friedman-esque capitalism such as inequality and global warming. No - NORMAL wasn’t good enough. And now, this question of ‘where do we want to go’ requires a unified response - at least in broad strokes.

I believe that right now we have a very unique chance to change and define a new path for ‘the good future’. So, ‘we will have all the tools - now we need the telos (the will and the wisdom)’.

Below are some of the best things I’ve been looking at in the past 7 days. Enjoy, stay safe, and be well, and ping me anytime if you need something.

Greetings from Zurich

Gerd