Probably one of the terms that appears most frequently in literary quotations is "crisis," but few, like this one from Spanish philosopher Eugenio Trías, explain so clearly the moment we are going through: "In this life, we must die several times in order to be reborn. And crises, although frightening, serve to end one era and usher in another."
More and more voices are saying that, apart from the health impact, the main component of the COVID-19 crisis is that it accelerates and accentuates the changes that society was already experiencing. In a recent interview on Channel 4, historian Yuval Noah Harari explained how, for example, his university has gone from spending 20 years debating whether to offer some courses online to moving all of its teaching to the digital realm in just one week. These are good times for those who, despite the difficulties, invest in digital technology and communication, and bad times for those who, in a panic, cut back on "expenses" that are actually investments.
This month's infographic deals with how to use imagination in these difficult times, not only to overcome the crisis but also to come out of it unscathed. These are not ethereal examples; each one comes from real cases that have been experienced in the first country to suffer the scourge of the pandemic, China, as can be read in the prestigious Harvard Business Review. Those who reinvent the wheel today will have a bigger market share tomorrow. Perhaps it is time to be cautious, but also to make imaginative decisions.
