Philosophy is just applied existential crisis

Philosophy being reduced to only pondering about existential questions is a tragedy of misrepresentation. Philosophy is the study of thinking, and that covers a very wide range of topics.

I was gonna say this.

Existentialism is kinda boring IMO. But the philosophy of language, knowledge, and ethics are all super interesting.
- I, too, have no fear of dying. There's absolutely nothing to worry about. I won't even know I'm dead. The only thing that is a bit scary is the process of dying, especially if it is something that's really drug out, like a terminal disease. Then, I have to think about it for the rest of my life. Otherwise, if it just happens in a flash, like a nuclear bomb, I won't even be aware I died.
And how is it even "applied"? I can't come up with an explanation based on my understanding of term, which is to use the knowledge of something to solve real world problems.
- Well, existentialism and nihilism kind of apply an existential crisis to reduce your personal suffering. That only works if you believe them though lol

I do not believe asking questions should be labeled as a crisis.

One of my philosophy professors described philosophy as a bunch of people trying to convince themselves they’re not nuts.

I think therefore I nut

When people take it too seriously it's more like herded anxiety.

Yeah, pretty much. Philosophy people can be helpful though, their idea processing systems are fairly robust, and unlike a statistician or scientist, they sort of end up with a side-specialization in communication. Which is extremely valuable these days.

The problem with philosophy in terms of understanding the bigger questions in life is that advanced physics (edit: and neuroscience, chemistry, math/stats, etc) has answered many questions that were previously in the realm of philosophy, and you can't really understand what's possible in reality / what constraints there are on abstract philosophy without understanding advanced physics and science.

Of course the problem with advanced physics is that it takes so much time and effort to learn and understand thoroughly that you often end up as a not great communicator to the average person.

Or, to be cheeky: physics aims to take the largest and most complicated concepts in the universe and explain them in the simplest possible language, and philosophy is the opposite.
- That's true if you're only talking about what was once called 'natural philosophy', but there are still many areas where philosophy and physics don't really overlap - ethics, epistemology, aesthetics, language, existentialism, etc.
- I don't think a philosophers job is to answer questions as much as formulate and ask them proficiently.

The other way around makes more sense IMO: "An existential crisis is just applied philosophy."

An existential crisis and it's only a Monday, tell me I'm alive