The cacophonies of human cognition: A psychologist’s perspective on cognitive distortions

 

The CORONA crisis – and in fact any other personal or collective crisis for that matter - represents a golden opportunity to notice the disintegrated dance and numerous circus parades animated by human cacophonies and misinterpretations. As humans we have an innate tendency towards distortions, we like them so much, we embrace them to such an extent that they become engrained into and indistinguishable from our nature. Humanity has always entertained a deep connection with cognitive distortions, so deep that we have identified our beings, our lives, our careers, our friends and even our family with them. We are made of flash and blood, neurons and synapses, not of 0 vs. 1 dichotomies. We get animated by emotions, remember or misremember past events, and tend to use personal experiences when interpreting new situations. Which is fine up to a certain point; but the results of our interpretations end up to be, well, idiosyncratic, how else? The mere fact that some of you started skeptical about my abrupt and critical assertions on the ubiquity of cognitive distortions, on the frailty of human interpretations, and on the sheer popularity of various cognitive cacophonies we all easily embrace (and sometimes refuse to let go) only prove that there is some grain of truth in my approach.    

         False beliefs or subjective undeserved trust in unsupported conclusions (the ancient name used for what we now label as cognitive distortions) represents actually quite an old and unresolved issue for humanity. I’ll only briefly mention a few hints that greater minds than mine alluded to during the recorded history. Observing the world and how humans behave in it Aristotle noticed that: "The ignorant strongly affirms his convictions, the scholar doubts his conclusions, and the wise man (the philosopher) reflects on what he sees." Confucius, four centuries BC, believed that "True knowledge comes from knowing the dimension of your ignorance." Charles Bukowski mentioned that the problem with our world is that intelligent people are full of doubts, and others… are full of confidence. You see, the same undeserved trust in unsupported conclusions was noticed long before humans invented the word psychology or came up with more objective methods designed to test apart the truth from the untruth. Nowadays we use the evolving and complex scientific methods for that purpose, and we partially succeeded to put aside some unsupported ideas about us as humans and about our world. But unfortunately, science cannot remove our appetite for cognitive cacophonies that only scream wilder in uncertain situations.  

Underestimating the danger of getting infected with CORONA and/or its possible consequences for your health could be equally damaging as it is overestimating them and being constantly anxious and on guard. Other cognitive cacophonies we uses more often than intended are: jumping to conclusions, disqualify the positives, thinking in black and white terms, mislabeling, expecting to live in a just world (fairness fallacy), to have total control of our life (control fallacies), to exert real change on others (change fallacies), while our decisions are biased (or primed) by unrelated anchors, by recently activated memories, by aversion loss, by the framing of the problem at hand. I’m not going to enter into much detail here regarding each cognitive distortion, but if you are interested I can provide some references.[1] Daniel Kahneman, a well-known professor from Princeton University who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics (2002), released a book where he analyses our thinking processes: Thinking fast and slow. Here he mentions that even experts in their field entertain cognitive biases and make errors (which Kahneman finds to be funny). And that’s because subjective confidence, which is closely related to the probability of being correct, is not a judgment, but an emotion. If the explanation or story we made up in our minds seems well-articulated and coherent we can’t help but feel positive about it (it feels right!) and we ascertain higher scores for its confidence. But the problem is that we can come up with coherent stories out of very little information that is in fact unreliable. And the quality of the story (its credibility!) depends little on the quality and quantity of the basic information used to construe it. So we can be confident of our conclusions having little reasons to support this, because confidence represents an unreliable sensor for trusting anything. And if this story about subjective confidence as an emotion is not enough, I could add another argument that relates to how our memory works. It was proven that when we think of past events we don’t just retrieve the information from memory (as a video tape would do), but we rather reconstruct it from the raw materials that are the most accessible for us at that moment, and our reconstructions are, obviously, not accurate. You don’t have to believe me for that thesis, just read Daniel Schacter’s book The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers. And just as another example, neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin described memory as "a puzzle with many missing pieces. We rarely retrieve all the pieces and our brains fill in the missing information with creative guesses, based on experience and patterns of matching. This lead to many unfortunate missrecollections, often accompanied by the stubborn belief that we are recalling accurately. We cling to this missrememberings, storing them to our memory bank incorrectly, and then retrieve them in a still-incorrect form and with a stronger (misplaced) sense of certainty that they are accurate" (see Successful aging Ch. 2 Memory and the sense of "you", p. 33)

So these cacophonic distortions seem to have been part-and-parcel of human cognitive processes long before I was born and will probably continue to be so long after I will stop typing about them. Any attempt to correct-them-all and to be totally-free is such an impossible endeavor that even perfectionistic champions, with little to no tolerance for their ambiguity, end up exhausted and finally surrender to their continuous attacks. That’s because attempts to get free-of-ALL-cognitive-distortions are simply vain and futile. We are not entirely helpless in this fight, that’s true; and we can mend a few cacophonies here and there. We can identify our most common cognitive distortions and try to decatastrophize them, we can differentiate facts from opinions or hypothesis (and eventually test our hypothesis), we can be skeptical about our own conclusions, we can learn to discern and rely on scientific evidence (and not on subjective confidence), and we can understand how culture, education, religion and experience have shaped our world-view. But compared to the sheer number of distortions assaulting us on a daily basis, it’s like one gun-man fighting an entire battalion of Chinese army. If the gun-man is motivated and smart enough, he can put down a few caporals. But the continuous nature of the fight (i.e., our incessant cognitive processes) makes his job unsustainable. While on duty, the gun-man has to eat, sleep, talk to his friends, make love, raise his children, buy groceries, satisfy his hobbies, enjoy the weekend, and go on vacations. Not to mention his frequent attention slips and long boredom intervals while actively watching. And any breaches are immediately speculated by one or more of the cunny cacophonic soldiers or caporals who risk their lives to sneak in and do their filthy job. In time, these soldiers (and sometimes even generals) end up moving inside and having a permanent residence in our minds. That’s how cognitive distortions got so ingrained in the myriad of information processes entertained daily by our brains, representing such a core part of our imperfect cognitions that the only way we can stop-them-all is to stop our thinking process all together. Somber as it may be, if we were to preserve our cognitive functions we have no choice but to accept their less-than-perfect functionality as an inescapable fact of life, and get on with it.  

 

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[1] Cognitive distortions: when your brain lies to you - here you have a written description of some cognitive biases and some solutions, and 30 cognitive biases and psychological misjudgments - here you could watch a more comprehensive list of cognitive biases released at the beginning of the CORONA pandemic

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Assuming responsibility

Irony represents a powerful weapon, especially when handled with dexterity. After three month of daily extensive media coverage on the imminent CORONA threat, even senior journalist’s highest frustration tolerance limit crashes under Trump’s invulnerability illusions. Yesterday Anderson Cooper reported that experts from the University of Washington estimated about 200.000 US deaths caused by CORONA until October 1. Despite this dire situation some high profile politicians behave as if their gaze got tired of following the invisible virus. Actually one of Trump’s recent spontaneous remarks was: “If we stop testing right now (for CORONA-virus) we will have very few cases, if any...” Such out-of-sight-out-of-mind approach prompted Cooper to ironically wonder whether Trump have surpassed the object permanence stage of development that normal 2 year olds are proudly acquiring. And his answer was that “the president perhaps hasn’t reach that stage (i.e., of object permanence), not at least when it comes to a virus that have claimed 116,000 deaths” only in the US. This biting sarcasm was meant to expose and corrode the president’s “twisted logic”, his failure to grasp the good warning signals testing are meant to bring, and his intention of hiding CORONA under the rug. But is Anderson Cooper’s strategy effective?

     At the beginning of March many tourists had definite plans to relax on various Cruise Ships. For example an Australian couple bought tickets for a local cruise around New Zealand. Despite the depressing CORONA news they supposed it would be safe to embark on their long awaited journey as the authorities approved the trip, the tourist agency seemed ok with it and they were not actually going towards China. If anything was not ok the organizers should announce us, they lightly reasoned, relaying for their go ahead decision on the organizers’ responsibility. However, after just a few days it became obvious that relying solely on Cruise’s responsibility was actually a bad strategy. During the cozy events enjoyed by everyone in the first half of the trip CORONA insidiously rolled up her sleeves and made a big catch, including the husband of our Australian couple. His symptoms were severe, and his unpleasant convalescence was longer than the cruise itself, but he survived. That is probably one of those situations where not thinking with your own mind could triple your losses (with the holiday savings invested in a ruined holiday spend on a virused cruiser that made you sick to the point of life-threatening).

     On June 20 Trump plans to organize an election rally in Tulsa (Oklahoma) where about 19.000 people are invited to spend a few hours indoors listening to their dream candidate and cheering out loud their support. It is an official event and authorities approved it, so most people could lightly reason it should be ok to have republicans from across the US crammed into the same space. This kind of events are so much part and parcel of the American culture and politics that people could not give them up just because an invisible virus decided to stubbornly move around. Plus CORONA represents not news anymore as everyone got accustomed with, and even bored by this obsolete topic. And just a few days before, many cities had multiple days of approved and unapproved protests for social justice and chanted their loud support for the Black Life Matter (BLM) movement. Now it’s time for republicans to cheer up, and make their voices heard, and enjoy the fun, emotional, spontaneous, optimistic, inimitable Trump speeches they craved for. And during those speeches nobody will take CORONA seriously, as this topic will be approached lightly, and optimistically, with the invulnerability approach so energetically put forward by Trump’s prevailing attitude. So there is a good chance that the nasty virus will be looked at differently, as an actually unthreatening inconvenience, at least for that day.  

But CORONA doesn’t really care about US politics, or BLM, or whether she can operate on land in Oklahoma or on the sea near New-Zealand. Her only aim is to have a big catch. So chances are that two weeks down the road some republicans will get infected, and will further share their experience with their friends and family. And in the many weeks before the November election some former Oklahoma rally republicans will be unable to vote because voting is irrelevant for those who inadvertently passed on the other side of life’s threshold. That’s another way in which America is leading the world in terms of CORONA infected cases and fatalities, evening the number of affected Caucasians so as to keep up with the disproportionately large number of black cases occasioned by poverty, and lack of education, an lately by the numerous BLM unrests.    

         

Finally, what still surprise me is how ready and willing some people are to delegate their responsibility to whatever authority they happened to have above. By now everyone on the planet have heard in his language multiple messages about CORONA’s whereabouts and what we should do to avoid meeting her in person. However, if a Cruise company in Australia, or the Republican Party in the US, or the Government in Sweden says that it is OK to have a large meeting, or mingle with random strangers as we normally do, or to enjoy our already paid cruise, there will always be people who show up. Since the event was approved by an authority figure, they lightly reason it must be safe and sound to follow. Plus, they are convinced it’s not a big deal to participate, they are just engaging in normal behaviors that were impossible during the last months and stolen from them. I still can’t approximate how massive a threat must be to make people take it seriously, or whether it is humanly possible for a public event to be announced and not attended. Probably not!

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When anger overrides fear

Protesting during a pandemic represents a toxic combination with a potentially damaging impact for the society as a whole. However, the not even vaguely veiled dangers of CORONA contamination was literally trampled by the righteous anger tornados stirred by the knee on the neck murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis (May 25, 2020). The video showing Floyd’s last minutes struggle to breathe under the weight of former police officer Derek Chauvin went viral because it deeply touched on our emotions. This preventable death represents another incident where black citizens are overly-subdued by white police officers in the US, adding one more case to the already long history of unresolved issues. Upon seeing such injustice emotions got on fire and released a dynamite-like explosion of reactions. The wildly protesters went out of their way to make themselves heard and use this momentum to express their rage hoping to change something in the justice system. But as anger turned blind, more damage and suffering was inflicted, at least for the moment (i.e., as police or random cars were broken, buildings and stores were set on fire, protesters and police officers were injured, and non-trivial conditions for the flourishing of CORONA’s up-spiral ascent were created).    
      

Authorities could not oppose the protests, and faintly tried to remind citizens about face-masks and social distancing practices. Somehow remote from the mob, a CNN image depicted “A woman wearing a mask protests near the Colorado State Capitol in Denver” as mindful of such ideals. But in the background of the “I can’t breathe” T-shirt woman a large mass of unmindful protesters were not socially distancing and countless other clashes were recorder throughout the US. The crude reality is that when people are enraged it seems improbable to regulate their behaviors by appealing to their rationality or by reminding them of an invisible viral threat. As unfair as George Floyd’s death was, it is likely to cause more damage and death on the short term before it might contribute to the justice system on the long term. Besides the direct damage inflicted to human lives and properties, one additional reason is caused by CORONA’s indifference for how and why her spread is facilitated. Consequently, in two weeks we might see a rise in US infected cases, and in a month more than one additional black coffin conducted to the grave. However, this potentially larger damage prompted by the many individual decisions to take part in the protest could have been prevented if only the righteous anger would have been directed in a different way. But I must admit this is a really, truly hard and difficult to achieve task for the untamed human nature.

O the surface it might seem a sharp contrast between deciding to willingly keep one’s knee on someone’s neck for 8’46” and deciding to rightfully express one’s anger for such an appalling act while discounting the invisible no-death-threat-for-today carried out by a virus. But that’s only on the surface – as one action seem to lead directly to suffering and death of another human being, while the other seem to lead indirectly to similar results for oneself and others, but this time through CORONA’s agency. However, the I-can’t-help-it-but-rightfully-protest attitude, although not likely to incur a comparable degree of accountability, might toxically interact with the pandemic and contribute to the exponential growth of the death toll in the US. But powerful anger overrides fear, and instead of protecting black and white lives in the long term, protesters used the momentum to underline their revolt. In other words, they disregarded the invisible risks and went on for to punish the visible one. Only in one month’s time the protesters, the doctors, and we all would be able to estimate how wise that decision was.             

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The inadvertent consequences of disruptions

When disruptions hit us, or our family, organization or country, our reactions tend to be negative: we get frustrated, panicky-anxious, discouraged and resentful as we quickly realize that old solutions are useless, known shortcuts are impracticable and normal advancement is partially or totally blocked. So we see ourselves thrown in what we perceive as strange new mess with little (if at all) experience to rely on, facing an uncharted mountainous terrain. Our unpreparedness might be just part of the picture as we soon notice the clumsy movements of the other actors, be them big or small. Uncertainty kicks in as complex causal chains start to shift dramatically out of their normal tracks and make educated predictions seemed closer than ever before to five year olds guessing about nuclear power.

       Despite the undoubtedly negative consequences at all levels (health, economy, policy making, psychological functioning etc.) that we have to wrestle with, disruptions have at least two additional side-effects that we shouldn’t pass over. The first one is related to their capacity to make more transparent (at least temporarily) the internal, usually hidden, underlying mechanisms that sustain the disrupted system. By closely following how it was forced to perform under pressure and in uncertain situations, by watching its crude and spontaneous reactions, by seeing the route it followed when it had to unwillingly deforest the unexplored mountain - the subtle observer can only praise the golden opportunity to complete the image with the missing or dimly colored pieces of the puzzle. This is, in and of itself, a mighty topic I am certainly tempted to explore further (most probably in another post).

      The second side-effect of disruptions, that I am willing to chase now, is related to their capacity interrupt and disturb our internal world. The mere fact that old tracks turn unusable overnight urges us to suddenly stop, take a deep look at the new chaos, and devise something. But interestingly enough, the stopping and reevaluating moment could have consequences that might reverberate beyond the mere “what shell I do now?” unknown. Such suspended discontinuities, at least for those inclined to question the philosophical underpinnings of their behavior, might occasion a deeper analysis of what animates them (or their organization, the health system, the government) to engage in these behaviors, of why and how these actions were carried out in the first place. These unwelcomed and resented interruptions could actually make us pay renew attention, could bring a fresh perspective, could make some things appear sharper, and make us notice what previously stayed unnoticed. We might have the chance to listen the muted hums of deeply hidden personal wishes, to get in contact with our values, to reconsider some choices that were half-consciously reiterated hundreds of times during the loud noise of everyday live music.  

      Looking back two months ago, when the CORONA crisis had just started, for a moment I had the impression that my usually buzzing academic world - that continually demanded something of me - had suddenly stopped, and I was literally unable to interact with it (i.e., as the regular face-to-face classes were suspended). It was a moment of pure silence, when the whole world seemed suspended, smoothly floating in a foreign space, with just the void surrounding me from all over. And for a split second I subjectively had a powerful impression that I was totally free in that floating space, unbound by any straps, disengaged from everything except my passions, absolutely free to direct my whole mind towards activities that makes me reverberate with truly vital tonalities. It was during that moment that I’ve been in contact with my deep values whose hum was continuously blocked by the buzzing noises and the incessant external demands once essential for my professional development. It was during that moment that I realized how limiting the attached straps were for my intellectual freedom and for my creativity that could not take hold of my entire mind due, mainly, to the lack of psychological space. It was during that moment that I decided to carve in my program more writing time, to devote myself towards contemplating the fresh new images unintentionally revealed by CORONA’s multiple disruptions, to welcome and even entice creativity, to express myself courageously.  

      Besides being disheartening and forcing the stop and reflect stage, disruptions pressure us to take actions and push things forward, sometimes in entirely new conditions. After the denial is surpassed and the initial shock absorbed, after the earth rotates around its axis for a few uneasy nights, the unmistakable feeling that something significant has shifted willy-nilly pushes us to change gears if we want to rise up to the challenge. Unsure whether we can make even one step forward we make our first moves in a state of agitation, apprehensive of what might happen. Around us things look messy and we are not entirely sure how to proceed but it’s overwhelmingly evident that decisions have to be made and actions have to be taken. And the very interaction between the pressure to solve a problem and the messiness around (present in the environment or in our own minds or both) has the potential to spur creativity, as Tim Harford persuasively argues in his book. Baffled and resentful, we find ourselves in the uncomfortable position to cope with the unexpected. And since most memories fall short when it comes to solving new problems in unfamiliar circumstances we knock at the door of creativity hoping for some get-around ideas, or at least some plausible and handy hypotheses. We became suddenly ready and willing to step out of our comfortable shoes, to try new things, to tolerate unfamiliarity, and to spend more time solving problems. And such openness, that we didn’t even bother to greet before the crisis or to spend one evening per month with, was actually a by-product of the disruptive event per se. But Tim Harford mentions in his talk on the Importance of Being Messy that the alertness occasioned by taking an unprecedented rout, and sometimes by engaging in a longer adventure to explore the unknown, can actually bring the extra bit of energy needed for the creative work.               

      Finally, I am not arguing that disruptions are good and they should definitely get an invitation to the ball. I am not even arguing that they always lead to philosophical awakenings, or improve our creativity, or help us better understand the underlying mechanisms of the disrupted system. I am just arguing that disruptions primarily disrupt, and oftentimes bring unredeemable damages and lose. And that’s their main job! However, by forcing us to act differently they also have some inadvertent potentialities that some of us might take advantage of. And I don’t know what your reactions to CORONA’s multilevel disruptions were, but mine incorporated multiple concerns, and worries, and frustrations. But I was also surprised by an unexpected gift box I received with a word twisting game inside. The instructions were to use some word twists as a way to contribute to the up scaling of my neighbors coping strategies. And you might remember, from a previous post, that among my neighbors I counted the teenage Vietnamese girl who just learned English and the Peruvian middle age man who recently got divorced. And interestingly enough, playing around with the word game somehow captured my attention to the point of underestimating how fast a Sunday can pass while writing.     

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The wind and the cherry tree

I was reading in my studio during one spring weekend day trying to delight myself with the oftentimes fascinating perspectives of other brilliant minds. And during one brief pause my accidental glance on the window caught the unannounced white petals parade enacted by the playful interaction between the wind and a nearby cherry tree. My buzzing mind abandoned for a moment all previous activities and let itself be absorbed by the splendors unfolding before my eyes. During that mindful moment I realized how wastefully generous the nature is when offering such free confetti productions, with no previous warnings or advertising. Neither the wind choreographer nor the cherry tree petal dancers seemed to care even for a bit whether their unique show is recorded or not, or whether someone, anyone, is paying attention. God know how many times I’ve missed their beautiful acts during my busy days while caught up in my cluttered program. But with or without bystanders, the wind and the cherry tree are naturally enjoying their daily interactions being animated exclusively by intrinsic motivations, with no thoughts whatsoever about anything that would vaguely resemble performance anxiety. They carry on with their lives and offer every spring, to anyone who cares watching, their wastefully beautiful charades of wedding like confetti entertainment. And probably that’s why such candid moments, with their magical appeal, can evoke in those attending a real cascade of emotions like joy, and gratitude, and awe. If we care to notice, nature offers us such beautifully brief mementos that, despite what happen around and inwards, hope still survives.         

Email: bogdan.tulbure@e-uvt.ro

bogdan-tudor-tulbure.blogspot.com

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Hypothesis for CORONA’s origin

When faced with uncertainty and unpredictability we naturally struggle to fill in the void with plausible explanations. Making sense of what we see and coming up with credible theories represent a legitimate attempt to better orient ourselves in the new environment. The increasing number of CORONA infections and deaths, the massive disruption for our daily life and the economy made us fill in the unknown with different theories. However, when competing explanations fight for shedding light into the same mechanisms (i.e., the natural or artificial nature of a virus), only one takes the gold medal at the final ceremony.   

     Here I’ll try to briefly tackle an important question using a rather factual and scientific approach: What is the origin of CORONA? Where was she born in the first place? The buzzing rumors on this hot topic goes from being man-made to having a natural origin, from arising in China or elsewhere (US?), from being intentionally or accidentally transmitted to humans and wide spread. I’ll try to objectively present some facts and let you decide for yourself about your favorite hypothesis. Anyhow, experts are not surprised to see so many hypotheses flourish in this context, as a close source to the White House coronavirus task force mentioned that "every time there is an outbreak someone proposes that the virus or other pathogen came out of a lab" including the US intelligence.   

     Synthetizing the discourse regarding the viruses’ origin I found four main hypotheses that seem to circulate widely:

1) CORONA was manufactured in the lab as part of the Chinese bioweapon program,

2) CORONA was brought to China by the US Army during the Military Games held in Wuhan (October 2019),

3) CORONA (accidentally) leaked from one of the Research Labs in the Wuhan area and spread to the densely populated mainland China,

4) CORONA jumped from bats to humans (probably mediated by another animal) at one of Wuhan’s wet-markets, where wild animals from across the globe were kept in insalubrious conditions.       

     For each hypothesis I’ll present the facts using a chronological order and my best scientific–impartial-objective mode and let you analyze the evidence in a separate post. Finally, I’d like to emphasize that my approach is apolitical and biased towards favoring only what I consider solid scientific data, as I am motivated by no additional interests besides my quest for understanding and making sense of what happens with our world.   

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The value of attitudes

Attitudes possess a hidden power to shape and color the melodic and even atonal notes of our lives in most circumstances we have to face throughout the journey. They can set a starting point for what may come later or change the action’s course in the same way as a musical key sets the tone (or pitch) for the notes that unfold on its portative. And my feeble musical allusions are only meant to introduce a recent interaction I had with a dear violinist friend during a leisure talk on a Saturday afternoon. We were discussing about how the same melody can be interpreted differently according to the performer’s attitude. And as our host had a violin at hand, she just exemplified how the same Beethovenian piece can be interpreted with the heavy touch of Johannes Brahms, with the loose flexibility of gypsy fiddlers, and with the original attitude of Ludwig van Beethoven himself. At the end of the brief impromptu concerto all of us were quite struck by the unexpected diversity hidden in the same musical architecture if approached from different perspectives. The immediate juxtaposition of these divergent attitudes, with the various emotions and distinct paths they alluded to, made them stand apart even more.

        The importance and contagious nature of attitudes becomes also apparent during high quality interviews professional journalists conduct. I am talking about the much appreciated experts journalists who are familiar with their field, and spend quality time investigating the details of the discussed topic. In Romania we have a show called “The professionals” where Eugenia Vodă - a movie critic and TV producer - invites different personalities for extensive and oftentimes philosophical interviews about their careers. Her show stayed in top for years as she invited many people, from artists to soccer players, to unveil the details of their path. And during all this time her fascination for the individuals’ achievements, and creativity, and obstacles, and hidden hard work, and unexpected moves never drained. She managed to set a unique tone for her quality productions because her questions were inspired by an authentic enchantment for high performers. And the fascination conveyed by her tone and attitude was nearly always transferred to the interviewee who danced with her every question. I suppose she took advantage of the implicit flattering message send by taking such a profound interest in the details of one’s career or one’s life as a whole. Nevertheless, her attitude was certainly the main source of inspiration for her questions that set the stage for each hour long interview; and by aggregation, for her lifelong journey. That’s just one more example of how a healthy and productive attitude can sets the tone for the notes that unfold on its portative.

          I could elaborate at infinitum about the key impact attitudes have in setting or changing the course of the journey, but I will save this option for latter. Now I just want to leave you with a challenge and some spear time for personal reflections. And there it is: What’s your general attitude towards the CORONA unexpected visit? Are you baffled by the economic impact of the virus and tend to be more sensible to these aspects? Do you have strong opinions about how politicians should manage this complex crisis and tend to launch predictions about the effectiveness of the world leaders’ strategies? Was your scientific curiosity stimulated and you follow the progress of the medical/scientific community? Are you more concerned about the psychological aftereffects and try to prevent them from crippling your family or business? Are you looking for or just started to take advantage of the new opportunities for your business or scientific career or artistic productions? Are you considering how the medical system could be reformed for both practitioners and scientists? Do you see the fragility of human life from a different (broader and wiser) perspective now that you/someone close/your country was affected by CORONA’s unforgiving sting? Do you tend to use this time for deeper introspections regarding true values and the core directions of the life you’d like to pursue after the virus will be unequivocally defeated? What are your attitudes? And how would you like them to set the tone for the notes ready to unfold on your portative after the restart?                   

      

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