[hyko]

This is BS. You can be aware of existential threats, and respond to them appropriately without feeling the slightest bit anxious or paranoid. It's called planning.

The personal founder experience related here has value, but trying to create this big theory of psychology from it is not helpful, nor are the extraordinarily tenuous links to panic buying and immunology.

edit: This comment reads quite aggressively, which was not my intent. I just want to provide a counterpoint because I don't believe the central thesis is correct, as it runs counter to my experience. Someone might still find it helpful as a model though.

I guess the more you know, the more threats you can perceive, so at some point you just have to turn the limbic system off. The amygdala is not yet compatible with Wikipedia. i.e. there are existential threats that make the COVID-19 crisis seem like a picnic, but if we can't do anything to mitigate them, why worry?

[goldfish]

If you are able to deal with existential threats without "feeling the slightest bit anxious or paranoid," you are very fortunate and not the intended audience :)

I agree, however, that planning is often helpful for reducing anxiety, insofar as it reduces uncertainty.