Brilliant Crank: “In the last six weeks, I haven’t talked to a single person who isn’t drowning in stress from the relentless flood of bad news. Despite their best efforts, some of my friends are falling into the doom loop—consumed by current events and attention-whore pundits saying whatever it takes to keep them trapped. Don’t get me wrong, this country is in some deeply disturbing, uncharted waters right now. But the worst thing we can do is get so wrapped up in events beyond our control that we lose our ability to think clearly. We need to train ourselves to process information, stay focused, and take action where it actually matters. Resilience and antifragility have been on my mind a lot since November. More and more it feels like a week’s worth of bad news has been compressed into a single day. Our attention and mental health are under attack—bombarded in a way humanity has never experienced before. In response to current events, writers like Kottke have focused their efforts on exposing the darkness. I have a lot of respect for Jason’s work, but if I immerse myself in it 24/7, I’ll be a shell of a human by next month. Perhaps as a companion piece to Kottke and others, this issue is focused on strategy and tactics—ways to take in information without getting pulled under. I’ve got plenty more to share, so if you find this useful, let me know. We’ll start with an amuse-bouche, then move on to methods for protecting our minds—drawing from the philosophies of Ikigai, Stoicism, Antifragility, Buddhism, and Ubuntu. Let’s go…”