Tools
The cosmic calendar
Carl Sagan's trick: squeeze the whole 13.8-billion-year history of the universe into one year. The Big Bang is the first instant of January 1, and right now is midnight on December 31. Enter how long ago something happened to see where it lands.
On the cosmic calendar, that was
—
All of us, in the last few seconds
On this scale a human lifetime is a fraction of a second, and all of recorded history fits in the final flicker before midnight. It is the most effective cure I know for taking our moment too seriously, or not seriously enough. It pairs with the long view in The Zero-Player Game and the deep-time framing of We Stole the Pen.