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Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

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111–120 of 175 posts

Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don't hate you. But I object to your unwillingness to understand science, and your willingness to jump to conclusions that aren't supported by evidence. Wilful ignorance like that is exactly what leads to many of the kinds of issues OP is raising.

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

#112
post #75
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure rants aren’t (or can’t be) good for mental health?

An emotionally charged rant (what other kind is there?) is a projection. It can be good when you're overwhelmed and need to get through a crisis, but it's bad long term. That's how I see it, at least.

“It’s bad long term” is an unsupported assertion. Why do you believe it?

Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

#113
post #46

>AI I'm apathetic. It's there, it's a tool. >international conflicts I am fortunate enough to not live in the countries mentioned. I am close to Ukraine so this one is sort-of important to me in terms that I don't want Russia to win, but at the same time there's no point in following the news closely. If something big happens I will most definitively hear about it whether I'd like it or not. >The US / Europe Nothing…

There's been a couple of posts recently that have been great and I apologize about not having links, but one was about talking to strangers and the other was about helping others. For me, it's amazing how helping someone out or taking with a stranger can revitalize my look on life and everything going on in the world. It reminds me that there's good in this life and the world.

In believe this was the talking to strangers article. I had opened the tab, but hadn’t read it yet.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/feb/24/strange...

Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

#114

>AI I'm apathetic. It's there, it's a tool. >international conflicts I am fortunate enough to not live in the countries mentioned. I am close to Ukraine so this one is sort-of important to me in terms that I don't want Russia to win, but at the same time there's no point in following the news closely. If something big happens I will most definitively hear about it whether I'd like it or not. >The US / Europe Nothing…

>AI I'm apathetic. It's there, it's a tool. You won't feel that way in the near future.

I’ve been hearing this for 3 years now. Exactly how long do you want people to live in fear?

This feels like Elon’s FSD predictions. In 2013 he claimed 90% of the miles would be driven autonomously by 2016. It’s now 2026… 10 years after the prediction was supposed to come true and we’re still waiting.

Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

#115

I am astounded by how many comments recommend completely withdrawing from worldly matters. While I can understand why this may seem like a smart move, it cannot be the right choice ethically (think of Kant’s categorical imperative). Of course, you cannot directly influence world politics. But choosing a small area where you can make something better—anything that positively affects your fellow human beings—seems to m…

I saw people trading the macro for the micro, focusing on family and those close to them. That is a small areas where they can make things better. Focusing on giving children a good childhood and teaching them well, will do more than filling them with the anxiety they’d pickup from a news obsessed parent who is too stressed out to play a game. This is the most positive thing most people can do for the world.

Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

#116

A lot of the replies here are saying to just not worry about any of this stuff because most of it doesn't really affect you and you can't do anything about it anyway. As someone who battles chronic anxiety every day, I don't think those answers are helpful. Yes, the world is always full of uncertainty, and yes, you being less online will probably help, but that doesn't mean we should all just ignore the horrors unfol…

I agree with you. Withdrawing into one’s own little world cannot be the answer. And saying it’s the only realm you can control isn’t really true. For me personally, doing that would always feel like avoiding responsibility. It might bring a kind of shallow happiness, but not a real sense of meaning or connection. That only comes from taking responsibility—not just for your own small world, but for the world around yo…

Pay enough attention to find worthy causes too contribute to. Don't pay so much attention that you get overwhelmed into depressed inaction. There's always going to be bad shit going on in the world. Sitting at home crying about it is less effective than if I hadn't heard about it and am able to go out there and do something about something I did manage to hear about.

Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

#117
I'm a Christian. That changes several things for me.

Despite all the mess, I believe that God is ultimately in control. (Yeah, I hear you say, "Sure doesn't look like it!" And you're right, it doesn't. And yet, how would you expect a world in rebellion against God to look? Do you expect it to be peaceful, running smoothly? I don't.) This world is crazy, and we're making it crazier. But I believe that God is there, limiting the craziness.

I believe that this life is not all there is for me. I don't have to have everything work out perfectly for me here, because this isn't all that I get. If war comes, if I get killed, I'm not cheated out of my one chance to live. I get another.

I believe that God cares about what happens to me. (This does not mean that everything works out perfectly for me! My life has had issues, a couple of them pretty major. Still, I trust Him, not to give me a perfect life, but to do good to me.

But a bunch of you aren't Christians. Well, if what you just read appeals to you, you can come and get it. But if not:

Life is still pretty good. I'm enjoying walking. (I had foot surgery three months ago. The days when I can walk without pain are nice.) I can't fix all that out there, but I can speak encouragement and, hopefully, wisdom into the lives of people close to me. I have a wife who loves me. We laugh a lot together. Yeah, there's a whole lot of crazy that I can't do anything about, but life is still pretty good.

Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

#118
post #105

>AI I'm apathetic. It's there, it's a tool. >international conflicts I am fortunate enough to not live in the countries mentioned. I am close to Ukraine so this one is sort-of important to me in terms that I don't want Russia to win, but at the same time there's no point in following the news closely. If something big happens I will most definitively hear about it whether I'd like it or not. >The US / Europe Nothing…

> Always sucked. If you don't believe me feel free to go back to any underpowered machine of your choice and use it as a daily driver for a while. No, tech didn't always suck. Sure, it was slower hardware. But it was empowering hardware. You owned it, it served only you, didn't spy on you and you could make it do whatever you desired. Now it's mostly walled corporate gardens, you are the product, every gadget spies o…

Yes but holy shit I can describe what I want and AI writes the code for me and then I describe the bug, talking to my phone, doing speech-to-text, and the computer fixes the problem for me! And you can be negative and dystopian about it and get hella depressed, or you can just choose not to be. Yeah, I get the Sunday scaries and freak out every so often, but are you gonna let that take you down or are you gonna do something about it?

Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

#119

My biggest problem right now is thanks to Claude I'm making much faster progress on my passion project and I'm working in a maniac state almost, but then I remind myself that it's probably meaningless because if things progress as they have, anyone can just copy what I've built, and if we get to AGI all bets are off anyway. Balancing these two moods is tough. Lots of sleepless nights lately. Thankfully I have a large…

Sell enough that, if the market tanks, you won't regret it. Keep enough in that, if the market doesn't tank, you also won't regret it.

For me, I moved some money out of the stock market. The PE ratios are just too high to make sense. (I mean, I think that the competition is bonds, and the interest rates on bonds being lower means that stocks can support a higher PE. Still, I think the current level is probably insane. I especially suspect that AI stocks are going to get hammered, so I reduced my exposure there.) But I didn't get completely out; for medium- to long-term money, I still want to be there.

Could I miss some gains? Absolutely. But I also could dodge some losses.

Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

#120
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An emotionally charged rant (what other kind is there?) is a projection. It can be good when you're overwhelmed and need to get through a crisis, but it's bad long term. That's how I see it, at least.

“It’s bad long term” is an unsupported assertion. Why do you believe it?

It's bad if it's all you do for the long term. You need to move on from it eventually.
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