Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?

ManlyBread · 14 days ago

>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 I can do about any of that so no reason to get emotional. The most I can do as an European is to vote. Anything else is entirely out of my control unless I'd dedicate my entire free time and career to change things and I am completely uninterested in doing that.

>the stock market

Invest in index funds and forget it exists. If even that's too much for you then you then just put the money in the deposit. Interacting with the stock market is entirely optional.

>tech sucks

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. Dealing with any tasks on an old PC with a single core processor and 5400 rpm hard drive is pure agony compared to what we have right now.

>How are you all staying sane?

Stop being terminally online and go do something you actually enjoy. Most of the stuff you mentioned doesn't even actually affect you in the slightest.

boyter · 14 days ago

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 100 years ago.

mvcosta91 · 14 days ago

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?

m4tthumphrey · 14 days ago

> Reminder. What passes for news today wouldn’t have registered for most people 100 years ago.

This is a great point.

throw0101c · 14 days ago

> Reminder. What passes for news today wouldn’t have registered for most people 100 years ago.

Up to a point. There are some things that should not be ignored, e.g., "Trump says he's not mulling a draft executive order to seize control over elections":

* https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-says-hes-not-mul...

"Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency":

* https://archive.is/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2...

2-to-15 · 14 days ago

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.

al_borland · 13 days ago

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...

minhaz23 · 12 days ago

Can you link to the one about helping others please?

RASBR89 · 14 days ago

Going back to some old machines with this hardware and they feel rapid compared to now. Instant UI response

ManlyBread · 14 days ago

That's because you're more likely than not using the best (or close to the best) hardware that generation had to offer. Try using a mid-end or a low-end machine and doing more than one thing at a time, it gets ugly real quick.

SirFatty · 14 days ago

>AI I'm apathetic. It's there, it's a tool.

You won't feel that way in the near future.

ManlyBread · 14 days ago

Is it the same future where I sent crypto from my no-code app to buy a NFT to use in my Metaverse apartment that I interact with through VR?

al_borland · 13 days ago

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.

hypeatei · 13 days ago

If you're sure of this, then what actions have you taken to shield yourself and/or profit from this? If I were a true believer that AI was going to takeover, I'd be allocating a large part of my portfolio into AI companies (hardware & software) along with learning a trade that's relatively safe, like cleaning septic tanks or construction.

Do you really believe in the narrative you're pushing?

yakshaving_jgt · 14 days ago

I feel broadly the same as the above, except on the apathy towards Ukraine.

Ukraine is standing because they took action.

Something that helps me keep my sanity and dignity is by materially supporting Ukrainian soldiers. I will never regret having stood on the right side of history on this.

If anyone wants to contribute but you aren't sure how, I'm happy to help. Email is in the profile.

jjav · 13 days ago

> 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 on you and pushes advertising at you. On some phones you can't even choose what to run. Every mouse click and finger movement is tracked and phoned to the corportate overlords.

So yes, tech mostly sucks now but it wasn't the case earlier.

aprdm · 11 days ago

You can buy the same hardware today and do whatever you want with it.

fragmede · 13 days ago

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?

wise_blood · 13 days ago

I feel like I could've wrote this word-for-word.

I'm Pierre Menard

morgengold · 13 days ago

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 me the more appropriate path. In the end, it will likely also lead to less nihilism and more happiness. And more sanity.

magarnicle · 13 days ago

Is it because "the news" has changed beyond what we are designed to handle. It used to be just local gossip, and every now and then you'd hear about the king having a son or something. Eventually things progressed to where you would get newspapers and TV telling you what's happening in your country and maybe some global news, but you would only get that once a day and space was limited. Now it feels like news sites dredge up every bad thing happening everywhere at every minute and give it a big headline, trying to convince you it is important to know.

al_borland · 13 days ago

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.

appreciatorBus · 13 days ago

Not watching/reading "news" or engaging in mass or social media is not withdrawal.

Rather it is doing that which opens the space in your mind to be able to "choose a small area where you can make something better".

As long as you are on a hamster wheel of "Trump said this" "Trump said that" you can't make anything better in your life, nor be of much service to anyone else.

morgengold · 13 days ago

I'm all in on a healthy information diet. I was more concerned with comments like:

"I am apathetic to everything because there is nothing I can do about any of that. I am a speck of dust on a cog of a machine. There is absolutely no point of worrying about any of this."

ensocode · 12 days ago

I don't know if consuming world news makes you ethically better. That sounds a bit much and yes you can make something better in your society by what ever ... opening a hacker space in your village... I just do not get the relation between scrolling through news and affecting fellow human beings

Karrot_Kream · 12 days ago

As a bit of a counterpoint, I'd say focusing on world politics can make you less effective at effecting local change. The amount of anger in my Blue city to the Trump admin has made more of our attention focus on Palestine or ICE and less on traffic safety or local tax revenue. We can save lives right here, right now by focusing on traffic safety. But 100x more people show up to a Gaza rally than a DOT hearing on traffic safety.

Obviously completely throwing your head into the sand is deleterious, and understanding the national political climate is certainly an important part of things like applying for grant funding or understanding how to get Federal dollars to match State and Local dollars. But IMO the nationalization of politics is having a real effect on the effectiveness of local politics.

morgengold · 9 days ago

I understand your point and I would agree. Most likely there is no general right approach. One has to navigate based on skillset, personality, environment and so on. I see the problem only if all the "good" people withdraw, there are always some on the other side who will take advantage thereof.

pickleglitch · 14 days ago

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 unfolding around us.

While it may feel like there's nothing you can do, there's a phrase I've found helpful: action absorbs anxiety.

You don't have to fix the world. But you can try to improve your tiny corner of it. Whether it's creating a small stockpile of emergency supplies, or writing letters to elected officials, DOING something can help a lot more than you might think.

For me, I have made a hobby out of self-hosting as many services as I can so I can at least feel like I'm a little less dependent on big tech. I study history to try and better understand the present. I write a blog to give expression to my anxieties, and that helps too, even if very few people ever read it.

And yes, limiting your social media time is a good idea. I recently set a "no social media after 8pm" rule for myself. I'll read a book, watch a movie, or play a video game instead. It helps.

morgengold · 13 days ago

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 you as well.

fragmede · 13 days ago

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.

mrala · 14 days ago

Have a link to your blog?

pickleglitch · 13 days ago

Sure: https://pickleglitch.com/

christofosho · 13 days ago

Doing things I love:

  - Learning French and Japanese
  - Drinking tea and exploring tea culture
  - Playing Geoguessr (or in my case, Geotastic) to see different places in the world and just generally have a fun time figuring out languages, and unique traits of different countries and cultures
  - Reading and watching science fiction, lots and lots of it!
  - Coding. I really do love writing code.
  - Trying to improve my communication skills, and ability to break down and describe tasks. It relates to AI, but also relates to working and interacting with other humans. :)
  - Working
  - Hanging out with my family
  - Eating yummy food that I enjoy
  - Doing crosswords
  - Playing video games
  - Writing
  - Rock climbing, other physical activities like walking or doing a quick work out
  - Cleaning and fixing the home.

These don't solve all of the problems, but they make me feel better about my own life and that positivity helps me interact with others and think more positively about the world and all the cool things in it.

ducktastic · 13 days ago

Playing an instrument

christofosho · 11 days ago

Somehow I missed that, even though I regularly play several of the instruments in my home... Thanks for reminding me of one more awesome thing!

pendenthistory · 14 days ago

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 financial cushion to fall back on, but then again the market could tank 50% this year and then even that wouldn't be much of a consolation. Can't be in cash either, opportunity cost too large.

RealityVoid · 14 days ago

> robably meaningless because if things progress as they have, anyone can just copy what I've built

Most other people lack the prerequisite skills even with Claude at their disposal. And it was always the case that other people could copy your things, it's just the effort was much higher, now it's more accessible.

Regardless, I would suggest you don't let this deter you from bringing something new into this world. It might have enough value to make it all worth it. Or not, but not releasing it you won't find out for sure.

pendenthistory · 14 days ago

I like working on it and will definitely release it, just don't want to set myself up for disappointment later. Try to enjoy the process of creation instead. But, it could also be that it's something that has value for a few years, and maybe that's enough.

patrickk · 14 days ago

In a similar boat. I’m running “ClaudClaw” a clone of Openclaw to enforce discipline in my limited free time to get an AI agency off the ground, in order to try to escape the miserable corporate grind. On the one hand, it’s a massive productivity boost, on the other hand, this tech is going to further hollow out the middle class everywhere and make so many people redundant. I don’t have the luxury to simply quit and focus on it full time.

pendenthistory · 14 days ago

Leaving your job has a different sense of finality now. When time comes to look for a new job, will the job even exist anymore? Makes the risk calculus a bit different. Maybe there won't be mass unemployment, but even a modest increase in SWE unemployment could make it so much harder and more stressful to find a job.

minhaz23 · 12 days ago

How are you using it to enforce discipline? And whats the business case for the AI agency? Helping other businesses adopt or something like that?

eucyclos · 14 days ago

I'm in a pretty similar position. I've been wanting to make something to align incentives between advertisers and the people who see ads for years. Finally sat down with Claude last month and now I have a working prototype. It feels surreal, I'm not a 10x programmer by any means. If I can do it, so can a lot of other people. It does feel like I don't have much time to capitalize on the first mover advantage.

But on the other hand... The things we really believe in we'd still cheer if someone else executed the idea better than us. Sure, we might make less money, but the idea gets to live.

And the odds of someone executing better didn't really go up, ai is just average across the board. So at worst, the odds of someone executing our ideas as well as us went up. Could be worse.

AnimalMuppet · 13 days ago

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.

garyfirestorm · 14 days ago

Make sure to fix sleep issues. Maniac state + lack of sleep can get you in some serious trouble. Disconnect for a while.

skyberrys · 13 days ago

Hey you can always tell yourself to take it easy because in 6 months the AI will get better and you could build the whole thing that's preventing you from sleep, in 30 minutes in the future. Unless you are worrying about the progress towards AGI.

monkeydust · 14 days ago

I have split my life into things I can control and I can't control. Both at home and at work. There are things that sit on the line of course but global affairs are firmly non-controlable in near term at least, baring any elections I can express my view through.

I do get why people are generally struggling more, the concept of stability in many senses of that word seems to be gone.

intended · 14 days ago

No one has a clear idea about what’s going on, especially with AI. I’ve spoken to a glut of people at this point, consumed months of content from leaders to influencers and used it myself.

Currently Singularity fears, AI factories, Vibe coding productivity are super positioned with unthinking hallucinations, vibe disasters, ghost productivity and cognitive debt.

“Nothing changes in my life if GenAI disappears tomorrow” coexists with “I’m wildly productive and having the best time of my life.”

I’ve heard of negative productive gains, 15% faster search times, to 2x productivity and an increase in new project starts.

I think the bull case for AI is wrong, and I have not yet seen a process that will work with the quality and process control expected of assembly lines.

You hear hints of it, or major headlines, which don’t pan out.

Recently LLMs were used to generate financial models, and they looked like they worked.

Except they got the historical wrong and made mistakes humans would not.

Many claims do not survive scrutiny. Except for the new project starts.

The best analogy I can share for this moment is to talk about sketching or pottery.

AI gets a master, with the right workflow, to a rough sketch or rough state quickly.

Then the master has enough experience and skill to know if the foundations are solid, and what to discard to get to a final working vase.

Something that can actually hold water, doesn’t have holes in the back or a stem which is blocked, or is made of paper.

khaledh · 14 days ago

I believe we (humankind) have been transitioning to a phase of what I call "time compression." Everything is happening too fast compared to say 40-50 years ago. You can attribute it to many things (tech in particular), but primarily it's the fact that everyone has a terminal in their hands where they can access information, people, news, etc. at a whim. It's affecting both our mental health and our collective social fabric. I think humans were not meant to be overwhelmed this way; our mental capacity hasn't increased, but the stimuli have increased by orders of magnitude.

I don't have a solution to this problem. But one thing I've been trying is to immerse myself in a hobby I enjoy, and ignore most of the noise around me. I closed most of my social network accounts 9 years ago, and it has improved my mental health significantly. I still read the news, but I skim the headlines and go back to what I was doing. Yes, it does affect me, but I try to minimize its impact and focus on things that compensate their effect.

There's no silver bullet. Just know that you're not alone. Unfortunately time compression is here to stay (and it will probably get worse), and those of us who fight it back will hopefully stay sane.

sph · 11 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity