I am notorious tab hoarder (100+ tabs in Firefox open right now).
I have decided that now is a good time to go through all those pre-pandemic tabs. This limits my exposure to covid news and allows me to stay sane.
Ask HN: How are you coping with all the (mostly bad) news around you?
11–20 of 121 posts
Re: Ask HN: How are you coping with all the (mostly bad) news around you?
#12Corona is actually GOOD NEWS. I'm not kidding. What the world needs is a severe recession that stops flying, overconsumption, and overworking. The longer the recession lasts the better. It's the only thing that can effectively slow global warming. Climate change is a global threat, coronavirus could be a blessing in disguise.
Yeah, until your parents die and your kid aswell because the IC is overloaded.
Re: Ask HN: How are you coping with all the (mostly bad) news around you?
#13A decade ago my country was hammered by the financial crisis. I made the decision to stop actively seeking out the latest news, apart from skimming HN or Reddit and seeing headlines by accident since it was all negative, negative, negative stuff for several years in a row. I don't stress about events as much as people around me, and it doesn't negatively affect my life in any way, in fact it probably improves my mental health. I don't watch TV apart from sport, and don't seek out information online apart from my hobbies and interests. I don't actively use FB or Twitter either.
Re: Ask HN: How are you coping with all the (mostly bad) news around you?
#14Corona is actually GOOD NEWS. I'm not kidding. What the world needs is a severe recession that stops flying, overconsumption, and overworking. The longer the recession lasts the better. It's the only thing that can effectively slow global warming. Climate change is a global threat, coronavirus could be a blessing in disguise.
Let's talk in a year when 60%-80% of the population will have been infected and millions will have died. Maybe you have no one you love who is in the high risk group, but I do.
Re: Ask HN: How are you coping with all the (mostly bad) news around you?
#15Re: Ask HN: How are you coping with all the (mostly bad) news around you?
#16Corona is actually GOOD NEWS. I'm not kidding. What the world needs is a severe recession that stops flying, overconsumption, and overworking. The longer the recession lasts the better. It's the only thing that can effectively slow global warming. Climate change is a global threat, coronavirus could be a blessing in disguise.
Periodic recessions are not really a sustainable solution for environment. The industry will try to catch up and recuperate losses and we'll be where we've started. Plus the investment in green tech will be less of priority in following months.
The one good thing that comes out will be improvements in home office and home education culture. Better tools, more online materials, wider acceptance.
Re: Ask HN: How are you coping with all the (mostly bad) news around you?
#17Keep a routine. Get up, exercise, work, read, etc. Stay busy and try not to let your imagination get the best of you.
Re: Ask HN: How are you coping with all the (mostly bad) news around you?
#18Leaning on friends, talking about my issues. Being open about my problems to management. And being OK (as in accepting) that I am not doing OK (as in not doing very well).
A lot of my friends also have free time. So a lot of doing stuff together remotely. Some of doing stuff together physically in small groups. And mostly, just a lot more contact with people on WhatsApp.
I read some advice that said, only check the news on e.g. 2 set moments in the day. I am trying to follow that. As for anxiety about how this is going to play out, I have accepted that things will be touch for a while. But I have faith that, here in the Netherlands at least, society will survive. And I have enough buffers (financial and supply wise) that I believe I am setup well enough that I can last longer than most. Hence, I think drastic measures will be taken to protect most people before I really start feeling the pinch.
My advice to you: stay in contact with people. Be open about your anxiety to them. Don't be an alarmist to your friends if you can help it.
As for work, I just sent them an e-mail saying "I ain't doing very well" with an implicit 'deal with it' in there.
Re: Ask HN: How are you coping with all the (mostly bad) news around you?
#19I worried a lot. Did the Amazon guy cough on my deliver? Why is my neighbor’s kid knocking on my door?
To solve this, I smoked a lot of weed. I’m out of weed now. Guess I should try to get some work done.
Re: Ask HN: How are you coping with all the (mostly bad) news around you?
#20Here’s my personal take:
1. I don’t trust news by default, when I saw something that might affects me, just then I started digging the facts across multiple sources.
2. I don’t share news, even if that could help others, unless I am 100% sure its a factual news.
3. Focus on what I can control, e.g government trying to hide something? Its not like I have the power to uncover the facts and I am not sure either if they’re trying to hide something.
4. Think positively, judge what is in front of you, stay safe by default. Government saying no one is infected with corona yet? Think positively and believe them, and stay safe by self social distancing. Unless you have the knowledge and resources to do research, its gonna waste a lot of your time while you can use it to prepare for your safety and those around you.
5. As for WFH, changes are always hard. Make sure to keep communicating and clarifying things that aren’t clear. Keep notes of anything important. Get enough sunlight, exercise, stay clean, drink enough water.
6. Whatever happens, happens. Remove all negative thoughts, for every hardship, there’s ease and comfort at the end ~ like how its always been (think about a hard problem from the past, and how it can be solved and there we are, still here and strong and learned something).
Best wishes! TLDR; Ignore news by default, stay positive!