Times of great calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.

Hard periods do produce remarkable people, though not because the hardship was a gift to them. When the usual arrangements break, the ordinary paths close and capable people are forced onto ground they would never have chosen, and some of what emerges could not have been made in easier conditions. Disruption opens ground; it does not make calamity good for anyone. Plenty are simply crushed by it.

If you are in a disrupted stretch, the honest question is not what this is teaching you. It is what has become possible that was not possible before, and whether any of it is worth taking up while the usual rules are loose.