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Optimism

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Re: Optimism

#71

Post by braythwayt »

numlocked wrote: post #64
braythwayt wrote: post #9

Author here. Ask Me Anything.

Maybe the most important conjecture in the whole thing is the one that isn't backed up; that optimists are in fact more likely to be successful (in any sense of the term). Is there factual basis to that claim? A healthy sense of dread and paranoia can be useful (if not fun). Obviously demotivating depression isn't helping anyone, but I don't understand why, prima facie, optimists ought to be "better at stuff" than pe…

In his book, Seligman claims that he actually measured people's performance, and that he has evidence for all of his claims:

A: That you can measure optimism;

B: And that it correlates with performance;

C: That cognitive therapy can increase optimism;

D: That the increased optimism correlates with increased performance.

He published his studies, but I have not reviewed them, I am just repeating the claims from his book.

Re: Optimism

#72

Post by [deleted] »

numlocked wrote: post #64
braythwayt wrote: post #9

Author here. Ask Me Anything.

Maybe the most important conjecture in the whole thing is the one that isn't backed up; that optimists are in fact more likely to be successful (in any sense of the term). Is there factual basis to that claim? A healthy sense of dread and paranoia can be useful (if not fun). Obviously demotivating depression isn't helping anyone, but I don't understand why, prima facie, optimists ought to be "better at stuff" than pe…

[deleted]

Re: Optimism

#73

Post by dominotw »

PSeitz wrote: post #62

TLDR; To be more optimistic assess good stuff as personal, general, and permanent and negative as impersonal, specific and temporal. Make notes everyday about your assessments and correct them. There is research backing this thesis.

>There is research backing this thesis.

Is there a way for a layman to assess the quality of this research. I've read many assertions of research on HN on topics similar to this. eg: Meditation is supposed to help with depression(among other things) but seems like most research is extremely poor quality [1]?.

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19123875

Most clinical trials on meditation practices are generally characterized by poor methodological quality with significant threats to validity in every major quality domain assessed. Despite a statistically significant improvement in the methodological quality over time, it is imperative that future trials on meditation be rigorous in design, execution, analysis, and the reporting of results.

Re: Optimism

#74

Post by braythwayt »

mrec wrote: post #66
braythwayt wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Q: Why the heavy-ass .md? ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12299756 ) A: I use an OS X presentation application called DeckSet. DeckSet uses markdown files as its persistence model. That is very convenient for a number of reasons, including the fact that I can manage my presentations with git/github, something that is inconvenient with apps that use a proprietary binary format. The presentation is available in…

Is there a text-only version? The pictures aren't really adding anything and IMO break the reader's flow of thought. We can obviously get around it with something like Array.from(document.getElementsByTagName("img")).forEach(img => img.parentNode.removeChild(img)); in the console, but seriously. Medium has a lot to answer for.

This is an actual presentation given at a conference, so the pictures are actually the visuals. I did write up half of this talk as an essay, you'll find it here:

http://braythwayt.com/homoiconic/2009/05/01/optimism.html

Re: Optimism

#75

Post by ebbv »

I really enjoyed this, and I've been trying to do similar changes just based on things I've noticed work better but not formalized in any way. Now I have a better guideline to go by and a book to read.

Re: Optimism

#76

Post by ebbv »

braythwayt wrote: post #9

Author here. Ask Me Anything.

Since it's been 7+ years since you made this change personally, what has been your long term experience? Has the change stuck? Have you had periods of struggle?

Thanks.

Re: Optimism

#77

Post by ryanobjc »

dominotw wrote: post #73
PSeitz wrote: post #62

TLDR; To be more optimistic assess good stuff as personal, general, and permanent and negative as impersonal, specific and temporal. Make notes everyday about your assessments and correct them. There is research backing this thesis.

>There is research backing this thesis. Is there a way for a layman to assess the quality of this research. I've read many assertions of research on HN on topics similar to this. eg: Meditation is supposed to help with depression(among other things) but seems like most research is extremely poor quality [1]?. 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19123875 Most clinical trials on meditation practices are generally ch…

There is a ton of research in this area and an entire field of clinical therapy called "cognitive behavioral therapy".

There's literally too much to cite :-)

Re: Optimism

#78

Post by tspike »

smallnamespace wrote: post #28
braythwayt wrote: post #9

Author here. Ask Me Anything.

> Optimists explain good things as being personal, general, and permanent, and explain away bad things as being impersonal, specific, and temporary. Can't this be taken to unhealthy extremes? Sounds exactly like how narcissists think. Just look at Trump. He claims personal responsibility for his successes, but his failures are always one-time events that were other people's fault. Where should one draw the line?

> Can't this be taken to unhealthy extremes?

Sure it can. Happiness is orthogonal to ethicality or mental health. The line is not a line but rather a homeostatic balance subject to your own priorities and your culture's definition of those concepts.

Re: Optimism

#79

Post by gagagababa »

dominotw wrote: post #73
PSeitz wrote: post #62

TLDR; To be more optimistic assess good stuff as personal, general, and permanent and negative as impersonal, specific and temporal. Make notes everyday about your assessments and correct them. There is research backing this thesis.

>There is research backing this thesis. Is there a way for a layman to assess the quality of this research. I've read many assertions of research on HN on topics similar to this. eg: Meditation is supposed to help with depression(among other things) but seems like most research is extremely poor quality [1]?. 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19123875 Most clinical trials on meditation practices are generally ch…

I found Princeton's Buddhism and Modern Psychology particularly interesting [1]. You can read the course's overview to decide if it would be of any interest to you.

[1] https://www.coursera.org/learn/science-of-meditation

Re: Optimism

#80

Post by acjohnson55 »

braythwayt wrote: post #9

Author here. Ask Me Anything.

Thanks for another fantastic, thought-provoking piece of writing! As someone who has also dealt with periods of depression, this resonated with my experience and how I've learned to better manage my emotional state.

One reaction I had is that in my training to teach K-12, we were taught that our positive feedback should also be impersonal, specific, and temporal. This was to avoid falling into the trap of fixed mindset, even if it's more dangerous on the negative side.

And I think I personally appreciate praise that fits into that scheme. It makes me feel like the other person actually noticed and thought about the craft of what I've done, not just the outcome. The other side can feel a bit like flattery, which I distrust.

Not that I think the benefits of the other type of praise are unfounded. Just another point of view. Perhaps there's no shortcut to putting in the effort to learn the mix of styles that works for individual people and situations.

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