“Eliezer’s Unteachable Methods of Sanity” by Eliezer Yudkowsky

"How are you coping with the end of the world?" journalists sometimes ask me, and the true answer is something they have no hope of understanding and I have no hope of explaining in 30 seconds, so I usually answer something like, "By having a great distaste for drama, and remembering that it's not about me." The journalists don't understand that either, but at least I haven't wasted much time along the way.

Actual LessWrong readers sometimes ask me how I deal emotionally with the end of the world.

I don't actually think my answer is going to help. But Raymond Arnold thinks I should say it. So I will say it.

I don't actually think my answer is going to help. Wisely did Ozy write, "Other People Might Just Not Have Your Problems." Also I don't have a bunch of other people's problems, and other people can't make internal function calls that I've practiced to the point of hardly noticing them. I don't expect that my methods of sanity will be reproducible by nearly anyone. I feel pessimistic that they will help to hear about. Raymond Arnold asked me to speak them anyways, so I will.

Stay genre-savvy [...]

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Outline:

(01:15) Stay genre-savvy / be an intelligent character.

(03:41) Dont make the end of the world be about you.

(07:33) Just decide to be sane, and write your internal scripts that way.

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First published:
December 6th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/isSBwfgRY6zD6mycc/eliezer-s-unteachable-methods-of-sanity

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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