I started this article last week, and within a day, the alert level had risen to 2. That is where it stands now, with ca

That’s the goal for you now — a mini-empire. You just have to be smart enough, skilled enough, and technologically capable enough to slice off a tiny, tiny bit of the economic pie for yourself. And there will be plenty of opportunities to do so, as long as you’re on the right side of the equation.,After our pandemic is over (it will end at some point), I suspect the same thing is going to happen. We’re going to enter a period where a certain section of the population will experience the best decade of all time.,After World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic, we entered a period of economic and cultural prosperity called the roaring 20’s. After having gone through such a tragic period, people were ready to live again. And after the economic peril caused by the war, the economy was ready to bounce back, too.,Connectivity — You now have access to damn near anyone in the world. If anything, the pandemic accelerated the advancement of ideas like remote work, the gig economy, and the new entrepreneurial employee who contracts with many companies. Decentralization plus connectivity means more autonomy for individuals. Again, you want to be on the right side of this equation.,“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs,Decentralization — The gatekeepers can’t control all of the power in society anymore. The barriers to entry in so many fields are non-existent. With nothing more than a laptop or a smartphone, you can be the owner of your own company, You Inc. And this is exactly what the smart people are doing.,I am not a scientist, an economist, or a sociologist. I’m just someone who looks at the trends I see in society. Prior to the pandemic, I saw certain trends that favored a certain type of person.,“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs,But like I always say, your belief systems don’t have to be true necessarily. They have to be useful. At least, they have to be useful if you have any hopes of getting what you want.,This constant change does put a strain on people. Life is more difficult and unpredictable. And every day, it takes a lot of effort for Korean people to keep changing their habits to make sure the pandemic stays contained. But what choice do we have? To simply let people needlessly die?,Information — You can learn how to do damn near anything these days. If you can create your own self-directed education, display your knowledge and competence somehow using technology (You Inc) and connect with the right people, you can build your own mini-empire.,Remember the point I’ve continued to hammer home over and over again. Society will split into two camps — hyper optimistic, tech-savvy, and self-directed vs hyper pessimistic, slave to tech, and reliant individuals.,No matter how mentally or emotionally committed I was to vegetarianism, I ultimately realized that the foods I eat should nourish and strengthen my body — and they weren’t doing that for me, so it was time for a change. I didn’t want to make my body a slave to my mind or ego.,I’ve talked about the ‘sky is falling’ narrative more times than I can count at this point, but I have to keep talking about it because the outrage peddlers keep getting stronger by the day. This time, they actually have some pretty solid evidence.,We’re going through a global pandemic right now. Cases are surging, economic prospects are looking bleak, and there’s nothing but uncertainty heading into the end of the year. Then, we have politics. On top of that, we have a media hell-bent on exacerbating the issues as much as possible.