What caught my eye this week.
There have been several times over the past couple of years when I’ve had to admit to myself I miss the pandemic.
Not, it goes without saying, the horrible deaths.
Nor the vaguely wartime spirit and the disaster movie nightly briefings.
Not even the pretty good go of it that Monevator readers and myself made of talking – and constructively disagreeing with – each other through the early uncertainty, science, and economics of those first few weeks (before the debate metastasised into just another of the bifurcations that everything resolves to now). Though I do have fond memories of those conversations.
No – I mean the feeling of being completely off the hook.
Of not berating myself for declining to YOLO through some particular evening but preferring to stay in with a book.
Or of not feeling that I had to see a certain few people who to be honest I now haven’t seen since Covid. (They probably felt the same way.)
The quiet peace for large stretches of time of simply being alone.
You’ve got to fight for your right
Perhaps it’s unsurprising I found myself taking the other side of an essay this week in The New Humanist urging us all to finally shake off the pandemic and to get out more.
In The Introverts Are Winning [1], author Marie Le Conte laments how:
In the years after restrictions were lifted, many naturally outgoing people – this writer included – have found it that bit harder to get their friends out of the house.
Plans somehow require more effort than ever to get made, and are always at risk of getting cancelled at the last minute. A spontaneous pub trip, once a cornerstone of British social life, now takes work to organise.
All true of me. Indeed if you defined me by my social life, I went into the pandemic a slightly grumpy 35-year old and came out a young-ish 50-something.
And these days, when it comes to going ‘out out’, as my girlfriend would say (over WhatsApp, of course, where much of our relationship happens) I very often cba [2].
Le Conte quotes French philosopher Pascal Bruckner – author of The Triumph of the Slippers [3] – who believes:
“A new anthropological type is emerging: the shrivelled, hyperconnected being who no longer needs others or the outside world. All of today’s technologies encourage incarceration under the guise of openness.”
Which… seems a tad harsh?
Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded
But I don’t know. Maybe Bruckner’s right.
Because when the author of The Introverts of Winning in The New Humanist makes her case for visiting the outside world, it sounds to me like little more than a charity drive for my local newsagent.
Le Conte does not paint a compelling picture of that realm of strangers, awkwardness, intolerance, and rage.
Indeed compared to the joy of staying in – where everything is predictable, and most of human culture is at the end of a finger tap or the click of a remote control – choosing to have a spontaneous meeting with some other zombies who’ve stumbled blinking into messy and literally unfiltered reality sounds about as appealing as letting a drunk carol-singing rugby team in one by one to use your downstair’s loo.
Mushroom for a funghi
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a social recluse. Not even a wallflower.
For years The Accumulator thought I was an outright hedonist, until he knew me better.
I enjoy social stuff on my terms and my schedule. It’s all the unwanted stuff that does me in.
But I do find it easy to be alone.
I once did a work-related psychometric test, and the chap who conducted it (who for various reasons I knew independently of this test) raised an eyebrow when he gave me the result and told me he almost never saw people like me in testing – because they never made it to an office job.
I watch news stories about intrepid explorers living alone for two months with a shrug. So easy!
Coop me up in the International Space Station with a couple of others though and I’d be out the waste disposal chute long before my time was up.
I’m a high-functioning ultra-introvert in what was– until the pandemic – always an extrovert’s world.
Let’s all not meet up in the year 2000
Add it all up and even I know that I would hate to go back to prescribed global lockdowns.
My bout of Covid I mentioned before that started a few weeks ago has given way to what my GP calls a resilient ‘rebound infection’ and I’m now on antibiotics – plus rest and more rest.
As a result, I’ve spent most of the actual sunny bit of this summer canceling engagements.
It’d be nice to see my friends. It’s all a bit more 2020 than I’d prefer.
But, on the other hand, to go back to 2019?
Or even to the early 2010s – the last time that I commuted daily back and forth on a crowded tube to an office in the rush hour – with all that entailed?
Or to feel like I had to stay out in some pub, front room, club or garden party for an extra hour and then another hour because someday I’d be 30/40/50-years old and I’d regret leaving?
Well someday has come and I don’t regret the times I did leave.
I have other regrets! But overdoing it just to keep up with the extroverts is not one of them.
Not going out to work, either
Incidentally and on an investing note, this is all what’s kept me from piling into commercial property.
A favourite old real estate stock I follow is yielding 9%, has all its offices in ring-fenced special purpose vehicles so shouldn’t collapse in a realistic worst-case scenario – and as I wrote a few weeks ago I believe interest rates are coming down [4] anyway.
But maybe the return-to-work bounce has peaked too?
That’s not something we had to consider before when judging the commercial real estate cycle. What went down may no longer come back up.
The world is different. Bruckner is right.
He’s got the whole world in his hands
Maybe you’re an outgoing party-mainlining extrovert and if so good for you.
If these difficult years we’re living through have excelled at anything, it’s making more room for self-identification. Let the party crowd party harder I say.
Even I will see you at some future party. But I’m not sure which – and I won’t be at the one after that.
Not now – not after the pandemic. It broke that compulsion. Now there’s simply too much good stuff to stream on Netflix and Spotify instead. And all those specialist aquarium videos to watch on YouTube that didn’t exist five years ago, let alone when I was a fish nerd of a kid.
If enjoying so much good stuff makes me a ‘shrivelled, hyperconnected being’ then all I can say is shrivel me more.
At home alone
I know some of my carelessness about hitting my social step count nowadays must be an age thing too – my 35-to-55 transformation notwithstanding.
But still I wonder – worry even – whether future generations of introverts will enjoy the same get out of jail card on their tendencies that I now do, whatever Bruckner thinks.
Because awareness of that card was what the isolation of the pandemic gave us. A rare gift.
Future introverts may well have everything they need in their living room – or on a quiet walk in gloriously deserted countryside. (With everything else they need summonable on their phones, of course).
But I suspect they’ll be made to feel guilty about it.
What about you? Do you miss the greatest excuse for not going to a wedding since WW2? Or have you been revenge socialising since the moment the last curfew ended?
Let us know in the comments below. Especially if you can tease out an investing-related angle.
And have a great weekend whoever you’re with – or without.
From Monevator
Monzo pension: is it any good? – Monevator [5]
From the archive-ator: I, Robot – Monevator [6]
News
Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view click through to read the article. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing to sites you visit a lot.
Bank of England cuts rates to 5% – BBC [7] [Are you ready for lower rates [4]?]
US recession fears fuel swings in interest-rate expectations – Morningstar [8]
Winter fuel payments scrapped for pensioners unless on benefits – Which [9]
UK house prices on track for 2% rise in 2024 – Zoopla [10]
Controversial stablecoin Tether says it made $5.2bn in the first half of 2024 – The Block [11]
[12]
The business cycles of India and China are decoupling – Apollo [13]
Products and services
New lender offers mortgages of six-times income – This Is Money [14]
TSB has launched a £190 current account switch offer – Which [15]
How to spot car boot sale bargains – This Is Money [16]
Open an account with low-cost platform InvestEngine via our link [17] and get up to £50 when you invest at least £100 (T&Cs apply. Capital at risk) – InvestEngine [17]
Virgin 10% regular saver review – Be Clever With Your Cash [18]
What’s behind the 10-times jump in some home insurance premiums? – Which [19]
How to pick a financial advisor – Guardian [20]
A personal cybersecurity concierge is a new perk, and need, among the wealthy – CNBC [21]
Writer retreats for sale, in pictures – Guardian [22]
Comment and opinion
Ways in which Rachel Reeves could raise £22bn of tax – Tax Policy Associates [23]
Waiting for ‘the dip’ to invest – Oblivious Investor [24]
Has the FCA’s Consumer Duty helped consumers? – Which [25]
Bond ETFs are eating the bond market – Financial Times [26]
Insurance boss issues warning over using pensions to drive UK growth – Guardian [27]
Calculating what grandparents’ childcare is really worth – This Is Money [28]
How to invest in a classic car (without crashing your finances) [Search result] – FT [29]
The 11th Commandment: keep politics out of investing decisions – A.W.O.C.S. [30]
Risk – We’re Gonna Get Those Bastards [31]
Fantasy Island – Humble Dollar [32]
US alternatives-in-ETFs that will someday come here mini-special
Managed futures ETFs gaining traction on diversification benefits – Morningstar [33]
BlackRock leads firms racing to put private assets into ETFs – Bloomberg via Yahoo [34]
‘Dr Doom’ Nouriel Roubini looking to launch his first ETF […] – Bloomberg via W.M. [35]
Naughty corner: Active antics
Likening fund flows to ‘Ponzi maths’ – CAIA Association [36]
To infinity and beyond bonds – Man Institute [37]
The negative impact of crowding on active performance – Alpha Architect [38]
The flipside of financial innovation: why contracts fail [Research] – SSRN [39]
Kindle book bargains
The Happy Index by James Timpson – £0.99 on Kindle [40]
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt – £1.99 on Kindle [41]
Smarter Investing by Tim Hale – £9.29 on Kindle [42] [£9.29! But rarely reduced]
Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking by Matthew Syed – £0.99 on Kindle [43]
Environmental factors
Marketing a tote bag as reusable is silly. Say no to more stuff – Guardian [44]
Homeowners can get up to £2,000 off a heat pump with a Halifax mortgage – T.I.M. [45]
The very hungry urchins – Hakai [46]
Pre-Covid austerity in the UK hurt climate goals and energy security – K.O.I. [47]
Robot overlord roundup
[48]
As Snippet says [49], this chart explains why AI start-ups are getting all the VC money – Bessemer [50]
What is AI? The definitive guide – MIT Technology Review [51]
The AI-enabled restaurants of the future – Semafor [52]
Just four companies are hoarding tens of billions of nVidia GPU chips – Sherwood [53]
Silicon Valley’s trillion-dollar leap of faith – The Atlantic via MSN [54]
How does OpenAI survive? – Ed Zitron [55]
Off our beat
The United States of Cults – The Lefsetz Letter [56]
The finality of everything – More To That [57]
One man’s IVF journey – Guardian [58]
So, you say you want a revolution? [Podcast] – Hardcore History via Apple [59]
Sympathy for the CD – Guardian [60]
Inside the race to make the fastest running shoe [Info-story] – FT [61]
Warren Buffett’s breakup with the Gates Foundation will hurt the world – Vox [62]
Click me you idiot – Sherwood [63]
Russia’s surprising consumer spending boom [Search result] – FT [64]
‘Humongous’ fort found in Wales rocks theory of Celtic-Roman peace – Guardian [65]
Think like an Olympian – Vox [66]
And finally…
“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.”
– C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed [67]
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