good morning Hank it's Tuesday one of my
favorite words is together I really
think togetherness is the superpower of
our species like yeah we as individuals
are very smart as animals go but it is
our collective knowledge that has made
us so successful
no individual human could build water
sanitation systems and electrical grids
and transportation systems and write
Hamlet but together we've done all of
that and much much more
this also means of course that the
systems we rely on are deeply dependent
upon large-scale human collaboration
like last night I was eating some
broccoli and I started to think about
the number of individual humans who had
contributed to that stalk of broccoli
the people who grew and harvested the
broccoli the people who transported it
the people who built the truck it was
transported in the people who stocked
the broccoli at my grocery store and the
people whose tinkering and use of
agricultural science has over the
centuries dramatically increased the
yields of broccoli and so on there's a
similar story behind everything we
consume the electricity we use the books
we read the medicine we take the YouTube
videos we watch all of it is deeply
dependent upon human collaboration the
word together comes from the verb to
gather and for me at least one of the
many surreal and terrifying facets of
the kovat 19 pandemic is that suddenly
many of us are unable to gather our
communities have changed so suddenly
children no longer in school and
business is closed and shops with empty
shelves and many many people losing
their jobs and people who gather in
sports stadia or offices or workout
classes or places of worship cannot
gather in the way they always have our
family is self isolating a phrase that
like social distancing I didn't know a
month ago but is now ubiquitous in fact
I think one of the signs that a big and
lasting change has come to the human
story is when specialized language gets
integrated into everyday language see
also case growth factor transmission
rate and so on it's now clear that this
pandemic will put many people at risk of
serious illness and death and we must
must must listen to experts and isolate
ourselves appropriately for information
on the health and systemic risks of the
pandemic I'm watching dr. Aaron Kerr
on healthcare triage because he is an
expert in this stuff also put some other
resources I have found helpful in the
doobly-doo below so we must isolate but
we also must find ways to stay together
and to remain connected so that we can
keep humanity's superpower in some
places this has taken the form of
dancing the Macarena on balconies or
coordinating nationwide applause for
healthcare workers our family has taken
to having virtual cocktail hours with
friends every evening we're playing
virtual board games and we're trying to
reach out to the people we know whose
work and life will be most affected by
this crisis and the people who might
feel most alone in a period of
self-isolation
hank you've been hosting wonderful
twitch streams where you play stardew
valley with your son which my kids have
loved and that has inspired Sara and may
starting tomorrow we will be hosting
regular live streams here and on the art
assignment channel where we drink only a
little wine and make only a little art
there's a great discord for nerdfighters
called to atari a-- if you're looking
for social connection or you can join
life's library book club for free links
to all that in the doobly-doo I've also
found youtube videos helpful from
watching Grant at three blue one Brown
explained exponential growth to me two
watching Jane Wong at ARS Poetica read
me a poem right now I find poetry
especially helpful because it gives
language and form to so much that I'm
feeling Hank Robert Frost once famously
said that the only way out is through
and I believe that I also believe that
the only way through is together so let
us find ways to work with and for one
another and to serve and help one
another especially the most vulnerable
among us and let us make it out the only
way we can together Hank I'll see you on
Friday