Handling The Dark Forest: Survival When the World's On Fire
Channel: Arthur Doler
Date: 2022-07-22

This is a keynote I gave at Nebraska.Code on July 15th, 2022. I put a ton of work into this one and it's one of my new favorite talks.

Huge shoutout to everyone who watched me create this talk on Twitch and offered their thoughts and voices to make it better, but especially Lirazel.

The talk abstract:
2020 hit like a brick. 2021 did its best to up the ante, and then 2022 asked 2021 to hold its beer. It might feel like the entire world has been upended: there’s been radical shifts in the way we work, endless video conference calls, social and political unrest, lots of tough choices about our health and the health of those we love and care about, and now a brutal war in Europe. In short, it’s been several years of psychological trauma, and no clear sign of when it will finally be over. It might feel like there’s nothing you can do but hold on for dear life.

But there are things you can do. Let’s understand what’s been happening to your brain during this time: why your brain works the way it does, how it handles traumatic events like this, how to recover as things slowly start to get better, and how you can prepare yourself for the inevitable next crisis that comes along.