Is it my impression or are things devolving?
Looking at the news it's ever harder to not get depressed. At least for me. A loud voice in my head is saying that everything is devolving as far as humans societies are concerned. Crisis after crisis and news showing that everyday people are just breaking up causing havoc around them. And an ever increasing pile of problems waiting to turn into crisis.
Under that light my job (marketing analytics sw) seems pointless if not detrimental. But any direction I looked to kind of help out with the things that matter seemed a dead end. There are just no jobs about climate change or school violence. No startups addressing these issues. It seems to me that it is almost impossible to put any effort in what matter which increases the sense of me living in a bubble about to burst at first contact with reality.
Dunno. How do feel about all these and bow do you deal with it?
49 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 99.4 ms ] threadAs for violence, it's worth noting that "The USA has lower violent crime rates than the average of industrialized countries."[0] That's not to say it doesn't have severe problems that absolutely should be fixed with better policies, and it doesn't disprove your belief that things are devolving, but it maybe shows that things can be a lot worse and still be okay.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying complex civilization has a good chance of getting through this century, but I think the problems are more subtle than current news stories suggest, so we need to think carefully about what actions we can take as individuals that will have the best chance of improving things.
[0] https://safeatlast.co/blog/gun-violence-statistics/
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It's an interesting point, though, that only in the last 100 years have humans really been able to conceive of "destroying the earth" as something that we are directly capable of.
- it's a text post, so not a link to anything.
- the title ends in a question mark.
Yes, news programming sells itself with hysteria. But some things have unquestionably regressed, notably U.S. politics and the dignity and respectability of those who hold office in the USA. And, for that matter, the Supreme Court.
But all of that goes back to the deliberate, belligerent ignorance championed by millions of people in this country. The tragedy is that the Internet, once a conduit for scientific knowledge and research, has been turned into a clearinghouse for retrograde "thought," allowing stupidity to reach the critical mass required to bring down entire societies.
The world is ('Future Shock') changing. Including some very positive trends. The reaction to Ukraine for one. Covid was addressed in a year, not four. But enough is enough, and in most cases our best chances for positive actions are local.
Stop for 1 week. Come back and report how you feel.
As many have already advised you in this thread, quit (or ration) the news and social media. At least be selective of what you choose to read/hear. You'll feel better.
To be clear, things are NOT devolving; we hear about injustice that wouldn’t used to make it to the news and we humans have new information processing challenges to handle.
In the radio / TV age, there were only a few channels and sources of information. What you heard was curated for attention, and the only choice was to hear or not hear. And everyone heard from the same, shared sources. It was relatively expensive to spin up your own radio/tv broadcast. It was a few-to-many relationship.
In the internet + personal devices age, there’s a flood of new information sources (some automated even) AND information consumers can now be segmented down to each individual. AND the barrier to creating these many-to-many information pipes is way lower than before. So now, the onus to sorting all this information out is up to individuals: on/off, which channels, and who else “heard” what you “heard”.
More information and disinformation available requires humans to figure out and process information better - def. a challenge, but it can help _accelerate_ improvements to society as well.
https://www.menshealth.com/health/a26487546/steven-pinker-wo...
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There are opportunities to use your skills for positive impact. I know because I found one, and I’m working on tools which people use to improve and save lives.
Well, I should clarify: I had the luck of having the opportunity brought to my attention by a friend who knows my values and wondered if I’d be interested. I may have found it on my own, but I don’t know!
Assuming I wouldn’t have (which is a pretty safe assumption, I wasn’t aware of any of the projects or relevant technologies which would’ve put it on my radar), what brought this opportunity to my attention was having long term connections outside of tech with people who share my values, and enough familiarity that there was a tech overlap that my friend recognized I might be interested. I met the friend through protest circles, the intro for the opportunity came almost 20 years later.
That’s not to say that kind of timeline is inevitable. It’s to say I’m overwhelmingly happy to be doing meaningful work today, and I think it’s unlikely I’d be able to say so if I’d been focused on the career path to this.
My sincere advice is to build relationships with people who are working on issues you care about outside of tech or at least make those connections outside of a tech context. If you want to make the world a better place, people already working on that are much much better people to know than people discussing the topic on a forum (regardless of all of the good things about HN) bourn of startup VC funding.
If you’re socially inclined, go to a neighborhood or a community group meeting organizing around something you care about, instead of a tech-centered meetup. If you’re looking for inspiration or news about how tech is having a positive impact, take some time off HN and start finding sites where those are the focus.
Edit: deleted the thing which might be construed as promoting my team’s projects. If you want to know, I’m easy to contact. I’d hate for this to be misinterpreted as some kind of shill.
There are lots of green energy startups. And startups around ways to consume atmospheric co2. What are you looking for?
It can be argued that news can still be obtained elsewhere and I'd agree, but that isn't the advice I've been seeing here. It's pretty much just "walk away from news and social media" without any mention to where to go instead or some sort of platitude about how "things aren't really that bad".
Ignorance isn't going to fix anything, or help people prepare for what's coming or come to terms with what's happening now.
Things right now are not great. It's not just because of doom and gloom media (plenty of things are objectively messed up, no yellow journalism necessary), it's not just because of the internet allowing us to be more aware of the issues (the internet isn't exactly new at this point, and a lack of awareness about genuine problems should concern us far more).
Your stress is not abnormal or unreasonable. We should all be feeling more stressed out right now, either because of threats to our freedoms or our democracies, or because the effects of climate change are becoming harder to ignore, or because our children are being killed in their classrooms, or because disease is spreading, or because prices have skyrocketed, or because of acts of cruelty going on around us, or any of the other problems which are developing and/or worsening.
I'll propose an alternative: Keep paying attention. In fact, if there's something in particular that really worries you then really pay attention. Learn all you can about that issue. Consider what kinds of things might improve the situation, evaluate the extent to which there are things you personally can do help improve them and to better prepare yourself if they don't improve. If you find them, take those steps. Be proactive.
If there's really nothing you can do, or you've already done all you can then keep an eye on the situation for changes and opportunities, but try to come to terms with things outside of your control because either way we're stuck with them. Instead focus your efforts on the next thing that troubles you.
Climate change isn't something you can solve on your own, but you can stay informed and prepare. School shootings aren't something you can solve, but you can vote and campaign for gun control legislation and if you have children you can take steps to help them prepare. You'll likely have to expand your search for ways to help beyond start ups. Startups are about making money, any "making the world a better place" is incidental.
I would recommend getting out of marketing. You seem to recognize that you're in a toxic industry that's hurting people. Let it go. You've got skills that transfer. Maybe you can't find work saving the world, but there are plenty of jobs that don't involve rubbing salt in our collective wounds.
Also, consider talking to a therapist because while it won't help the underlying stressors it can help you find ways to productively deal with living under the stressful times we're experiencing, and if nothing else it's one more proactive thing you can do. All that stress and anxiety is your body telling you that there is a problem and that you should act. It's telling you to make a move and to pay attention. Doing those things is far better than trying to ignore the problem and failing (because you aren't blind) and ending up stuck feeling helplessness and despair.
Finally, take care of yourself. You'll be in a better position to handle whatever the future brings the healthier you are. Stress and depression are terrible for your physical health as well as your mental state. Treat your body better if you can.
My advice is that in the places where you can't fix the problem and help others, prepare and take care of yourself. Either way, keep moving and working toward something.
I've been around for a handful of decades and things at present really are exceptionally bad, but nothing stays the same forever and no matter how different our future ends up looking, there'll be some good times there too. The trick is in getting through to those good days to come.
The solution is you must find ways not to look at news.
For me:
1. Blocking via my hosts file
2. Telling myself that HN is enough- if it doesn’t make HN then it wasn’t bad enough.