
Ask HN: Preparation to deal with economic slowdown of COVID-19 - siddharthgoel88
As it is more or less common consensus that economic slowdown is obvious with COVID-19. Considering something we already know is coming what all preparations could one do to tackle it or minimize its impact to self?<p>Also as a lot of Software Engineers hang are found around HN, it would also be interesting to know about some plans or patterns of preparations that might be common things done by the people in this industry.
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austincheney
There were some things I did once the virus becomes clear. Planning started in
January.

* I was looking for other jobs in January, but backed out of that. Choosing instead to keep the job I already had. I did not like the job but it’s safe employment at a large company in an essential industry.

* I refinanced my house at a higher interest rate for a massive bucket of cash. I paid off some debt and kept the rest as a large savings net in case things get really bad.

* I waited until the recent market spike on Friday to sell any stocks. I sold 10% of what I had so I could buy stock in industries that are really hurting like airlines or cruise.

* I am writing a shared/distributed operating system. It’s not a true OS as I am avoiding work on low level features like kernel, drivers, or hardware acceleration and instead just working on distribution of application execution and multi-computer file system stuff. The pandemic is opening greater demand on data distribution, but aside from media most distribution is pretty archaic and limited to VPNs.

* I should be trying to take my software skills to the next level, but the job doesn’t care. I am in an area of spaghetti code, utter reliance on third party code tools, and out dated practices. Instead I just have to make the best of what’s there and be glad I still have employment.

* Be patient. All the data suggests the US is still far from peak bottom. Things will get much worse still and then recovery will be very slow. The prior high stock market was highly inflated by developer speculation. It will take many years to recover that. Know this now and plan accordingly.

* If everything falls apart I have a backup employment plan. I am an officer in the Army Reserves. My part time job could become a primary full time job.

* I am also doing research on foraging and trying to figure out home gardening on the cheap in cases everything else fails. 1 Fairytale pumpkin can supply a family of 4 with high nutrition food for a week and they store for 9 to 15 months and 1 plant will produce 2 to 6 fruits. I have several plants already in the ground and some large pumpkins sprouts indoors. I have sprouts of a variety of other vegetables as well.

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bb123
Do well at your job - the people who survive these things the best are the
ones who are able to keep their job.

