“When the world feels unstable, don’t let that drive worse decisions” by Catherine Low🔸

I drafted this in May. I’m just getting this post out the door now, but the atmosphere feels similar. I’m feeling unusually worried right now about problems in the world. I'm typically skeptical when people claim things are uniquely bad—and I counter their claim with some uplifting graph from Our World in Data. But recent developments around AI timelines, global political changes, and cuts to important global health programs, have left me more pessimistic than usual. I'm reminded of physicist Richard Feynman writing about his time shortly after working on the Manhattan Project: I would go along and I would see people building a bridge, or they'd be making a new road, and I thought, they're crazy, they just don't understand, they don't understand. Why are they making new things? It's so useless. This captures how I've been feeling lately—watching normal life continue while carrying this sense [...] ---Outline:(01:19) If youre feeling stressed or overwhelmed(03:25) If youre with others who are stressed(04:54) Review your career path, but dont constantly second-guess(05:21) Choose your part of the probability distribution(06:43) Getting support--- First published: September 8th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/Ezyh7LqNaigBvjhXw/when-the-world-feels-unstable-don-t-let-that-drive-worse --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.