Disclaimer:
These are not the opinions of my employer, AWS, and the only purpose of this newsletter is to share, learn through sharing, and foster some honest discourse in the community at large.
I have been wondering what happens when the lockdowns expire, travel comes back and we all get back to the new, new. Notice I didn’t say back to normal because maybe this is a new normal - not the old normal.
Here are some of my predictions for things:
There will be a surge of working in the office since unless you are already remote or took a remote job - most people crave the office setting. It allows good separation of work and home life and due to proximity it actually means less meetings. WAH is surging the number of meetings for many.
Food delivery will have a big drop as most prefer to go eat out - it is not only about the food but about hanging out, being served and not having to clean up. It’s an escape.
Online delivery might be here to stay at new levels but the current landscape may shift and less big players find a home with people cause they can’t get their orders in from their normal source due to how busy. This is happening to everyone. I also order online for the basics and then take a walk to my wet market or store in between. At this point only the niche ecommerce is working since no one has a delivery slot.
Kids tolerate but essentially hate home based learning. No friends, no lunch at the canteen and no chance to chat with the teacher. Just like adults, kids love to get out and have a routine - for my kids even transiting to school is part of it. Sure home based learning for certain things is doable and maybe a great way to augment learning but the classroom is more fun. I did home study for High School, I wish I hadn’t looking back but I had no choice.
For higher education I think it will look like Big Tech, the big brands will grow and be able to keep charging a pretty penny but the middle of the road schools will be seen for what they are and will experience a decline. Generally higher education costs too much, is creating too much debt and deserves to be undone. This event might have kicked that off.
Already wrote about the Startup scene which is getting remade as we speak.
Gyms will get super busy cause working out at home is fine in a pinch but unless you have a proper gym at home then the real gym with all the equipment and classes is better. It’s also similar to the office issue - I don’t do well with all of the work, gym and home life mixed into one venue.
There will be lots of breakups when lockdown is over - people will decide that the one they thought is the one turned out under pressure to not be the one. The breakup can’t occur till the lockdown is over.
Everyone is different but this is my take.