Our ancestors lived with huge threats but coped by focusing on their next step.

For most of human history, people faced threats that we would find staggering. Most children did manual labor that was full of risks. Villages were often invaded and plundered, and if you didn’t see it yourself, you heard about it from others. There was plenty of time to rehash these threats on dark nights before the invention of electricity. And people died at home rather than in a hospital in the past, so children grew up witnessing the raw truth of our mortality.

Just going to the bathroom was dangerous in the past. If you went to the usual spot, it swarmed with vermin that might give you intestinal worms. If you looked for an isolated spot, you were vulnerable to predators.