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It always surprises me how hard a time conspiracy theorists have understanding emergent phenomena.
Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?
51–60 of 175 posts
Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?
#52Ask yourself: could I be wrong? In other words, be humble. Maybe the world is getting better, but in your frame of mind, it is getting worse.
For AI: none know the future. The future you thought you saw before was an illusion, as it always is. So be humble, and take things a day at a time.
For Politics: Maybe the US and the US administration isn't the bad guys. Maybe the bad guys sent the murdering dictators cash, and maybe the good guys are taking them out, giving actual democracy and the people a chance. Consider you could be wrong. Be humble.
For Tech in general: choose agency. Take one area where you can try to build or use things which you don't think is slop and is good. Build, use, or support that. Ignore the slop and let it rot. You don't need to control the world. You just need to control you. You are limited. Be humble.
Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?
#53>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…
All of the above. Stop reading the news. It makes you depressed or angry. Go hiking. Walk on the beach. Play with a dog or your children. Climb a tree. Leave the slave slab phone at home, or delete every news and social app. Do not browse the web. Take a book and read. It will be hard at first. Then it gets easier. Best thing I ever did. Reminder. What passes for news today wouldn’t have registered for most people 10…
Seconding this. I only heard about Iran bombing 23 hours after it happened. I was playing SimCity 2013 with my 7yo. I’m reading older books, playing older games, exercising, and keeping a loose eye on AI so I don’t fall too far behind, but I always wait about two months before adopting anything new (like Claude Code, new tools, etc.). I know that’s pretty superficial, but the goal is staying sane, right?
Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?
#54Staying sane is a gradient.
But personally the current war gives hope. Ayatollah was Putin's serious leg to stand on, not just in the region. If Iran's new govt is normalcy-adjacent, not just the terrorist orgs suffer without support, but also the Putin's war thing collapses. A decade (or less) of peace and prosperity is upon some of us.
And AI is neat, it highlights so many things about people. We start to value agency in fellow human beings. People understand context better now, and give more context proactively when talking; but also understand that there's context poisoning, which is why derailing is bad.
In the end everything is a tool: AI is a tool, war is a tool. We think AI is for coding, and war is for power, but in the end AI makes us know ourselves better. War makes us know ourselves better (and also gave us fast airplanes). This is the important, this is what will remain -- when the kingdom is ash, and the echo still drums.
Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?
#55Focus on what you can control. Detach from social media. Get outside. Spend time with the people in your life who matter. We live in an information age where we know everything immediately, but it's a blessing and a curse.
Tried that in 2022 before the war broke out. Didn't take long for reality to catch up with me, sitting in a neighbor's cellar hearing missile whooshing past up above. Ignorance is a very costly commodity.
You couldn't have prevented the reason why the missiles are flying in the first place though. Of course a realistic sense of alert still helps, but it's lunatics in Russia running the show, not you or anybody else you know.
This is a time and target where "them-ing" is appropriate.
Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?
#56Focus on what you can control. Detach from social media. Get outside. Spend time with the people in your life who matter. We live in an information age where we know everything immediately, but it's a blessing and a curse.
Tried that in 2022 before the war broke out. Didn't take long for reality to catch up with me, sitting in a neighbor's cellar hearing missile whooshing past up above. Ignorance is a very costly commodity.
Even that will pass (for most — for some, it might simply "end" :/). I've been sitting in a cellar and bomb shelters in 1999 myself: yes, your struggle is worse and longer, but it will pass. The information you need today is very limited, so focus on that (what will be hit next; are there potential targets around you at all times, where do you get water/food in case systems break down, etc).
We are all victims of this weirdo game of global, live Risk, and unless you commit yourself to politics, really not much you can do here either: survive and focus on what's next!
Stay safe and good luck!
Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?
#57You're just feeling what the rest of non western world has felt for centuries. Welcome to the club.
Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?
#58- AI will not replace human attention / domain expertise for a long time
- International conflicts do not impact you at all
- Human systems are anti fragile (they get stronger with challenges). Trump migh actually reinforce Europe by antagonize it.
- Stock market doesn't matter if you own a farm (methaphorically and practically).
- Rights are eroding some places but also increasing other places (lgbt rights have been generally on the rise in the past 10 years)
- in general the quality of life EVERYWHERE (except the middle class of developped countries) has WILDLY improved in the past years: medical access / water access / education access has increased in most countries.
You are what you feed yourself..
- feed yourself with more positive news
- learn to ignore what doesn't impact you or you can't control (stoicism)
Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?
#59If you open yourself to be cranked up, you'll get cranked up constantly.
Pollution is real - a legit problem and a worthy cause, but the anthropogenic global warming thing was always just wealth extraction by elites. They cranked up at least three generations scaring them half to death and making them crazy and depressed and now, oh ... it was nothing, we need more power for AI data centers, you can go sod off now. No one can claim otherwise: the models' predictions never panned out and the data was always cooked for $$$. The trash we sort into the blue bin goes to the same landfill as the grey bin.
Almost all the latest crazes are like that. How fast did we go from Covid-to-Ukraine-to-destroying Tesla dealerships? Just don't get cranked up, it is all intended to stun you. Live your life. Focus. The people doing this to you need you to be unproductive and vulnerable.
I said "almost all" because the wars are real. The isolation and despair brought on during Covid lockdowns was real, oxes were gored, people were emotionally stunted and scarred. Covid itself likely came out of a lab, and it seemed to be designed to kill the elders.
Regarding the real harms that happened to real people and myself, I keep them separate as lists in my mind, I try to remember to hold scoundrels accountable if I am ever personally given that honor, and I try not to go to bed angry and to forgive people.
"Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold."
Re: Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?
#60I assume previous generations had similar feelings with the looming threat of nuclear annihilation for 30 years. I came of age in that wonderful time between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11. It feels that was an unusual period of time without major threat - however still had the messes of the balkans, terrorists blowing up kids in my home town, A couple of wise words. One from decades ago: Que será, será Whateve…
>prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old-- and when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders
I think I get what you mean but personally "in the end you'll be too retarded or numb to grasp reality" isn't really comforting