You can fake a lot of interests. I often faked interest in the state of the company I was working for, in exchange for money. I faked interest in random topics to get a degree. If faking interest in your mineral collection gets me someone to listen to my problems, that is a good exchange in my book. And who knows, maybe I learn some cool mineral fact.

Nobody mentions an instant divine lightning strike at the climax while sleeping with a bunch of porn stars at once while high? I am severely disappointed in the lack of creativity here

I cannot say I disagree. What comforts me is that

a) shit has been pretty tough for most of human history. Point at any “golden” age and tell me how the average dude lived.

b) we - us people, our civilization, and even biological life in universe - won’t be around forever. Change is the only constant.

Pretty abstract, but it helps me at least. Do what you perceive as meaningful. And if you have done your best, everything else isn’t up to you any more.

Spite is an excellent short term motivation. If you give up, those guys win. Fuck those guys.

The best way to piss them off is to live the best possible life (whatever that means to you), despite their attempts to make life miserable.

And sometimes those guys happen to be in your head. Fuck those guys in particular, we’re not going to give in to them.