
90% economy, 120% gastronomy: Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good - prostoalex
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/08/08/covid-19-seems-to-have-changed-lifestyles-for-good
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rossdavidh
"Covid-19 seems to have changed [x] for good" is not worth reading, for all
values of x, until we have gotten to a post-pandemic environment. It's like
saying, in the seconds or even days after a car crash, that the car crash has
changed your driving styles for good. Wayyyyyy too early to say.

~~~
Barrin92
Yep, some of these predictions are outright comical. "has covid ended
handshakes forever" or "will we ever go back to bars?".

Bars and handshakes have survived _thousands_ of years of pandemics. I get
that people always tend to think their moment in history is particularly
special, but I'm just gonna say if the black death didn't do something in this
won't either

~~~
abraxas
I'm not sure bars existed in the times of Black Death. I learned recently that
a sit down restaurant with a menu is a relatively new thing. Two hundred years
or so. Plus minus a few decades.

Your point still stands though. I just thought I would point that out as I
found it somewhat interesting because for a long time I had assumed that
restaurant business was much older than that.

~~~
autora
>I'm not sure bars existed in the times of Black Death

depends what you mean by a bar?

In the UK, taverns certainly existed prior to the Black Death (1346 – 1353).
For instance:

> Established in the 13th Century, The White Hart Inn on Drury Lane claims to
> be London’s oldest pub. Historical records show its first license was
> granted as early as 1216

[https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2017/10/the-15-oldest-
pubs...](https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2017/10/the-15-oldest-pubs-in-the-
uk-ranked-according-to-their-claims/)

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AlexandrB
This article is premature. There are many regions still either under partial
lockdown or where people remain uneasy about going out. These trends may be
interesting if they continue a year from now, but it's too early to tell.

~~~
pen2l
I'd like to offer you my anecdote, suggesting this will have lasting effects:

it forced me to learn cooking! My folks have commented on this a lot, I really
stepped up my cooking game in this confinement. I've learned how to make a lot
of pasta sauces, and how to do them _easily and quickly_, etc. The key was
learning it well enough to become comfortable with it so that it doesn't loom
as some esoteric activity which will eat some unknown amount of time.

Moreover, I crossed the point of being good enough that now it's one of the
activities I enjoy... and I'm now intrigued about general principles rather
than wracking my brain over strictly, unconfidently following recipes to a
tee. Basically, it forced me to get on the right track of starting a wonderful
adventure.

~~~
mntmn
Mind to share some good pasta sauce ideas?

~~~
pen2l
Of course!

Marianara sauce: [https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015987-classic-
marinara...](https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015987-classic-marinara-
sauce) You'd have to buy a san marazano can and spaghetti for this, a couple
bucks each, and you can store each for quite a while. You can add meatballs in
it if you're not a vegetarian.

Pesto sauce: [https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/07/best-pesto-
recip...](https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/07/best-pesto-recipe.html)
You might balk at the idea of having fresh basil... I would argue it's one of
the things you really need in your life! Buy a small plant, it'll run you 3-4
dollars (if that). Keep it by your window sil so it gets some sunshine, and it
looks pretty, and the responsibility of having to water it is calming and
enjoyable.

A whit'ish sauce: [https://lilluna.com/creamy-garlic-penne-
pasta/](https://lilluna.com/creamy-garlic-penne-pasta/)

It really gets fun when you get fancy with it. I often add whatever vegetable
I have at hand (e.g. , get some cumin seeds and bay leaves heated up in some
olive oil, add some onions/garlic into this oil... and whatever spices you
like and can handle (I'm partial to a bit of cayenne pepper, paprika, ground
cumin), and finally add your $VEGETABLE). Add this to your pasta sauce.

~~~
ironchef
Non basil pesto is also amazing. Some of my faves are with flat parsley (more
spicy notes), ramps (not in season right now obvi), and mint pistachio

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tempsy
All I know is that a crowded elevator is going to be strange experience for
many now for a long time, especially those who work in tall buildings.

A small cough in an elevator is the new fart.

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mindracer
How can they possibly come a those conclusions when we’re still in the
epidemic

~~~
cj
Ironically, the first news article I stumbled across after leaving HN just now
was “Simon Cowell broke his back falling off an electric bicycle”.

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Izkata
...why is "hair clippers" listed under "home entertainment"?

Bad haircut pranks?

~~~
klyrs
If that's the case, I "pranked" my cat with hilarious effect.

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imgabe
There is a thing with the media where they seem to take every trend as "the
new normal" and extrapolate out to infinity anything that shows even remote
signs of being embraced. It's usually not the case.

Sure, there may be some lasting changes that arise from Covid-19, but it's
probably not going to be as drastic as is being implied.

Every time something new arises, the media is quick to declare "This is it!
This is how things are now and always will be forever!" while ignoring the
fact that a change _just_ happened which would seem to imply that another
change will probably happen again at some time in the future.

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1vuio0pswjnm7
Seems like it would be pretty easy to game this sort of conclusion-making
based on Google search terms.

For example, let's say I control a popular app which installed on people's
devices -- thousands of developers/corporations/other entities are in this
position. I insert some new code in the app (perhaps via an automatic update)
that sends a Google query for some search term from a pool of similar terms I
have chosen. I can easily mimic the HTTP headers sent by a common web browser,
thereby making my request indistinguishable from one that is intentionally
submitted by a user, chosen from a list of common browser headers.

By having large swathes of users all appearing to search for the same or
similar terms I can make it appear to, say, the Economist, that the public at-
large is interested in a given topic. From there, the Economist will make
assumptions about the population at-large and then make conclusions about what
this means. Then they will publish these "findings" as a story. Many readers
will be swayed by the Economist's conclusions. At that point I will have
effectively influenced what those readers now believe. All it took were some
phoney searches.

Later, I could remove the code in the next auto-update.

By the time something like this was discovered by a user MITM'ing the app
traffic and reverse engineering the app, chances are I would have already
accomplished my objective: to influence people -- perhaps investors -- to
believe a story like the one reported here by the Economist. (Note: I am not
suggesting the Economist's conclusions are wrong in this case.)

~~~
rsa25519
Are you suggesting this has actually happened, or are you just saying it's
theoretically possible?

~~~
1vuio0pswjnm7
Purely hypothetical. The only things I know for sure are that there is an
enormous amount of 1. web traffic being sent automatically by people's devices
which they are wholly unaware of and 2. willingness to allow "auto-updates"
where no user ever looks at the contents of the code that comprises the
update.

It also seems like there is a trend of increasingly important decisions being
made based on assumptions arising from analysis of web traffic, however I
could be wrong on that observation.

------
29athrowaway
The pandemic proved that remote work is viable. And some people will now be
able to do it permanently.

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ezoe
Electoric bicycle fall under the Healthy Living category? Like how?

~~~
fatboy
I've noticed that people who don't identify as bikers are more and more opting
for an ebike over an oldskool bike by default (and bikers too, as another
steed in the stable).

I don't think this is a bad thing for public health. Ebikes need pedalling
too, they just assist. They assist quite a lot, which makes them fun to ride,
and probably makes them more enticing to take out. The fact that they assist
means you can go further in the same time, which is certainly what I witness
happening amongst my bikehead friends and the people I meet in the mountains.

------
caiobegotti
Oh no, tie-dye has been having a 235% increase in searches.

------
aaron-santos
Being The Economist I suppose it makes sense they left out the absolutely
massive shift in the trending of Marxism[1](~+900%) in the last few months.

[1] -
[https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F065...](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F0651vn)

~~~
ggggtez
I'd like to point out that you are data-illiterate here.

Here is an alternate explanation: Very few people search for 19th century
political philosphies on Google, compared to the number of people who search
for "hangover". Therefore all it takes is 1 news article, interview, book,
movie, etc to cause people to do a quick search and find out what a word
means.

So called "using google as a dictionary" is all you are seeing here.

The spike you are seeing, no surprise, coincides with a specific person
describing BLM as "marxist".

This has _nothing_ to do with covid. It's honestly stupid for you to try to
draw a straight line between COVID and marxism and imply that it's some kind
of conspiracy that the Economist is hiding.

~~~
bigcorp-slave
This is a pretty hostile post that looks like it violates site guidelines to
me. Can you express your point civilly?

~~~
perl4ever
I don't think the insults obscure the point. I may be "data illiterate" too
but it sounds plausible.

