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How Will Post Pandemic Behavior Change?

2021-03-19 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:36 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: civic or action cta

After his first vaccine shot, Hank argues that behavior is sticky and switching has costs, sorts his pandemic-era habits into a post-COVID behavior change alignment chart by whether he wants them and whether they will happen, invites viewers to make their own, and tells future Hank to have friends over.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — First vaccine shot; his Walmart boss's lesson that behavior is sticky; switching costs and which pandemic changes to keep

  • ★★★ Hank has just gotten his first vaccine shot, is feeling good, and wonders what pandemic behaviors to keep. — 00:00:00 · vaccine
  • ★★ Hank recalls his boss at Walmart saying it is 10 or 100 times easier to keep someone coming to the same store than to attract them to a new one. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ Hank's point: our behavior is sticky; we are creatures of habit. — 00:00:00
  • ★ Going to the same store has benefits: Hank knows when it is busy and where the ketchup and peanut butter are, though no store agrees where peanut butter goes. (playful) — 00:00:30
  • ★★★ Every activity has built-in switching costs; we paid many to switch to pandemic life, much of it now seems normal, and Hank wants some changes undone and some kept. — 00:00:30 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★ Hank wants to keep wearing a mask on airplanes and wonders why he didn't before. — 00:00:30
  • ★★ Another dimension besides what he wants is whether the changes will actually happen. — 00:00:30

00:01:00 — His post-COVID behavior change alignment chart: hugging, business travel, Zoom calls, feeling safe around strangers, movies, telemedicine

  • ★★ Hank would like never to travel for business again, which has been nice this year (2021), but he will. — 00:01:00
  • ★★ With possibly an overabundance of hope, Hank has made a personal post-COVID behavior change alignment chart. (playful) — 00:01:00 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★ Among things Hank wants back that will definitely happen is hugging people other than his wife and son. — 00:01:00 · Katherine Green, Orin Green
  • ★★ Zoom calls with old friends, begun because of the pandemic, are something Hank would like to keep but is not sure they will keep up. (hedged) — 00:01:28
  • ★★★ Hank wants to feel safe around strangers as he used to but may not be able to; right now he would be uncomfortable in a big crowded room. (hedged) — 00:01:28
  • ★ Hank kind of wants to see a movie, but not that badly; he will go to movies again, though a four-year-old complicates it. (playful) — 00:01:57
  • ★★★ Hank wants to keep doing more telemedicine and thinks he will, though he is not sure his doctor will offer it; it has been great. (hedged) — 00:01:57
  • ★★★ Getting to the doctor is hard even for privileged Hank; making a single mom get childcare and wait for a 15-word UTI prescription is efficient for no one. — 00:01:57

00:02:44 — Restaurant delivery; invitation to post your own chart; some changes are not his choice; message to future Hank; sign-off

  • ★★ Many of Hank's favorite restaurants started delivering, and he likes a night in without dishes or going anywhere with a four-year-old. — 00:02:44
  • ★★ Hank has posted a blank alignment chart; viewers can fill out their own and post it on Twitter with a hashtag given in the description. — 00:02:44 · Twitter
  • ★★★ The exercise's key lesson for Hank: some changes will be his choice and some won't, and he may be wrong and not do things because behavior is sticky. — 00:02:44
  • ★★★ Hank tells future Hank that if he isn't having friends over as often as possible he should get his act together; this Hank misses it so much. (playful) — 00:03:13

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: COVID-19 pandemic

Also: Katherine Green · Orin Green · Telemedicine · Twitter · vaccine · Walmart

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