That's a really good point, especially for those who decide to make their living outside of the common "get safe job" paradigm, which to be fair isn't all that robust (at least in the US), either.
I've noticed myself that the anxiety I feel about losing a key component of my business has decreased immensely over the last few years, even though the risk is either the same or slightly higher. Even as a kid I used to feel strange about that. I was scared of big spiders, so whenever I'd catch one in my bed, I'd be terrified for the next couple of days and then completely dismiss it on an emotional level afterwards.
I'm not sure of how to effectively protect myself against that. It seems obvious to me that the current mapping of motivation/anxiety to risk, i.e. abrupt jumps from baseline activity into overdrive once an arbitrary and often foreseeable threshold is met, is pretty bad. However, beyond developing better habits, willpower and networks and having that bleed into not procrastinating on insurance against boring risks, is there really anything useful to do about it?
To combat anxiety, you need financial security - savings, low expenses, and probably most importantly, some source of revenue you can call on with confidence, even if it's a good deal lower than what you can earn in better circumstances. You need to know that come what may, you won't be living under a bridge.
The thing that struck me about this guy was that he appeared to have some skills - how could he translate them into quick cash?
Wouldn't that be handy? Some market to peddle your wares that you have confidence you could quickly bring in cash? I think t...
http://ergoemacs.org/misc/xah_as_good_as_dead.html