Ask HN: In these uncertain times, how do you handle anxiousness

Find a partner that isn’t neurotic and then have kids so you have something more important and real to focus on.

You've already identified the root cause of your problem: anxiety.

All your concerns are valid, but they shouldn't prevent you from living your life. So when you're ready to start the (other) work, consider seeking professional help and start therapy.

Slightly off-topic, but since a lot of people here mention therapy: I'm curious if there any recommendations / advices regarding online therapy? Would you recommend any website or anyone in particular? I have been thinking about going to therapy for a while, but haven't found any good recommendations for a local therapist so I want to try something online.

You are living in a way that tries to "escape from" the world. Trying to work harder in the rat race so that you can have more savings, so that someday you can have a lot of things provided for. This is not wrong, exactly, but it only addresses a fraction of what a person needs to feel fulfilled. Wealth can be very consuming because you can be sitting there with 20 years of salary in the bank and still be saying "but what if something happens".

You've already succeeded in working hard - you are earning a lot(relatively) and studying a lot. The way to think about it now, and to position yourself in a way that makes you calmer and more able to help those around you, is to start to live towards studying a problem. The problem is not a work or business problem, or an exam question, or even academic research. The problem is how to live well going forward. What an esteemed person would be in the society of 2035. What does their day look like? How do they spend time? What do they commute with? How do they stay involved with friends and family? Do they know their neighbors? And so on. And the answers you should give are not the cynical ones critiquing this moment, but answers you like and want to aspire to. Many things in life are age-old but are reshaped by the times. The times change what "right answers" look like. What is unique to these times is that those answers are no longer clearly defined: there is a fight everywhere you look. Disruption up and down.

When you go through these questions, and apply technology trends and emerging new norms on top as a guiding force, it stops being a money thing in any direct sense, but it also leads to money questions: "if this is the norm going forward, then that business won't make sense anymore, but these other ones will take its place." OK. But you don't have to feel compelled to be the person building it or investing in it or otherwise taking all the credit. You can aim for that, but credit is ultimately just the parts you find a way to get paid for; but even a passive, consumptive role is a way of voting towards the future you want, and you can vote for way more things in a passive way by doing or not doing them, leading by example.

For example, I decided that I am interested in micromobility after looking at the converging nature of EV tech, growing interest in expanding urban bike infrastructure, the growth of smartphone-based rental apps and the potential for AI tech to further refine and add more options to these services. What I did to act on this, after reading things about this industry and all that it's doing to change urban transit, was the most basic act: I subscribed to the local bikeshare service, got a cheap helmet, and started learning to ride a bike - today.

The benefit of that is that I become a changed person - I'm adapting to a future where it gets easier to ride around town on a bike or scooter. I can discuss the topic with confidence and introduce it to others. This prepares them for the future as well, and therefore - it calms me down; it puts everyone on a slightly safer and healthier trajectory if I add to the demand for these new options for getting around, instead of aspiring to luxury cars etc. I don't have to use it to "build wealth" in the abstract, because the literal stuff of wealth is in one's character by having agency over events, being in good health, being treated well, etc. Virtue ethics, as Aristotle taught.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t think we are destroying the planet. There is global warming and there is doom and gloom climate change perpetuated by the media. ESG corporations are spinning this hard too.