People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study • Hacker News Board

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#101

Post by nestorherre » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 12:11 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #80

mattsfrey wrote: post #44

A lot of cynicism in the comments here, but having an optimistic outlook has been a boon throughout history in almost all accounts. It's definitely harder today with all of the mass media and the constant negativity, but in my opinion it's hard to argue with the logic.. positive energy yields positive results.. at least more so than negative energy

Every day you can get up out of bed, enjoy a cup of coffee, and go outside and see the trees and smell the air, it's a great freakin' day.

Yep, so many things to be grateful of, but most of the people are just too "blind" to see them and acknowledge it. A gratitude journal is a really powerful tool.

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#102

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 12:18 PM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #61

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should read "factfulness". It annoys me when people talk of the current world and time in negative tones when it is best we have ever had by many measurements. Not that we are having a terrible time, but it is cool to think negatively of the world it seems to me.

I agree things are better than even, but let's not forget that's on average . Many people still suffer, and even the luckiest of us can see it. People just aren't wired to think about things in terms of population statistics. > people talk of the current world and time in negative tones Are you sure they aren't also considering the trend that we're on? Things are good overall, but China and Russia are not functioning…

[deleted]

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#103

Post by nif2ee » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 12:48 PM UTC

Seriously Who the hell do and fund these "being optimist makes you live longer, eating healthy makes you longer, water found to be wet" researches? Is this because of the so much supply in graduate schools or researchers/schools want to see their names in the press?

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#104

Post by rnd33 » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 1:18 PM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #61

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should read "factfulness". It annoys me when people talk of the current world and time in negative tones when it is best we have ever had by many measurements. Not that we are having a terrible time, but it is cool to think negatively of the world it seems to me.

I agree things are better than even, but let's not forget that's on average . Many people still suffer, and even the luckiest of us can see it. People just aren't wired to think about things in terms of population statistics. > people talk of the current world and time in negative tones Are you sure they aren't also considering the trend that we're on? Things are good overall, but China and Russia are not functioning…

I think the main point I got from Factfullness was not that "the world is getting better stop being so pessimistic", but rather that we are biologically wired to seek bad news and we will automatically try to find the bad angle in everything. This is useful when you're living in a survival situation, not much so in modern society. If you zoom out a bit and look at history from a decade or even century perspective it is ludicrous to say that the world hasn't gotten better, or to say that the positive trend will somehow stop 2020.

The trend away from democracy is alarming yes, and we shouldn't ignore it, but there is no way of knowing if it will be a short blip in history (like the trend of Communism 50s-80s) or something more permanent.

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#105

Post by lonelappde » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 1:21 PM UTC

craftinator wrote: post #42

aytekin wrote: post #38

More likely: "People who live 85 or more have more of the good things like health and safe environment which also makes them optimistic."

You beat me to this by 5 minutes. It seems pretty obvious that the path of causation tends in this direction, rather than the other. And even if there is a signal going the other direction, extracting it from the noise caused by "people who have health and financial stability" seems impossible, unless the sample group were all of people who have lived to at least 85 without having these traits.

"seems pretty obvious" is not how science works

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#106

Post by lonelappde » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 1:25 PM UTC

FrankyHollywood wrote: post #68

kristiandupont wrote: post #50

Yesterday, my wife stumbled upon a "20 pieces of good news" article and read it to me. Things like initiatives being taken to save the bees etc. At first I thought it was a bit silly but I realized that hearing all those good things did something wonderful: it made me feel quite optimistic on behalf of the world, which I can't say I have in a while (in spite of my own life going quite well). Keeping informed is the d…

With 8 billion people around something bad is always happening every second. For that reasen I uninstalled all news apps years ago. I'm never bothered with 'breaking news' or anything. I pick a few moments a day to look at some news sites. And I always start with world news, and end with HN, keeps me positive :)

wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_journalism

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#107

Post by rnd33 » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 1:27 PM UTC

hutzlibu wrote: post #86

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should read "factfulness". It annoys me when people talk of the current world and time in negative tones when it is best we have ever had by many measurements. Not that we are having a terrible time, but it is cool to think negatively of the world it seems to me.

"when it is best we have ever had by many measurements" Not really. By an ecologist measuring it is the worst world we have since the last ice age and getting worse every day. So sure, when you don't give a sh*t about nature, you can have your happy bubble of constant happy developement and improvement, but otherwise not. Oh and of course you also have to have a good air filter installed, as air pollution is a real t…

Honestly, I'm more concerned that people are blinded by an ignorance of history. If people truly think the average human life was better or 'not that bad' 200+ years ago I don't know what to say. Sure some things are getting worse, but proportionally the average quality of life has MASSIVELY increased in the last 100 years, and is still increasing especially for the poorest people in the world.

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#108

Post by tcbawo » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 1:33 PM UTC

kristiandupont wrote: post #50

Yesterday, my wife stumbled upon a "20 pieces of good news" article and read it to me. Things like initiatives being taken to save the bees etc. At first I thought it was a bit silly but I realized that hearing all those good things did something wonderful: it made me feel quite optimistic on behalf of the world, which I can't say I have in a while (in spite of my own life going quite well). Keeping informed is the d…

This is the primary reason I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal (while avoiding the opinion section). It focuses on business, usually describing facts without judgement. Also, lacking are the local tragedies and most politics. In general, curating my own content makes a difference in my mood/anxiety levels.

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#109

Post by Gravityloss » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 1:36 PM UTC

achenatx wrote: post #98

rzzzt wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the constant presence of stress hormones makes people more prone to pessimism?

Anecdotally, Ive been very fortunate to have a positive brain chemistry. When bad things have happened, my brain pretty much doesn't worry on them. Eventually things work out (or something good eventually happens) and I get through the bad times. There is no way to explain or describe this positive brain chemistry in a way that anyone can believe. But since I was a kid, my parents have been worried that Im too happy…

I do annoying things to avoid bad things from happening in the future. If one is very optimistic, then one would not believe the bad things would happen and thus one would not be very motivated to do the annoying things.

For example do you wear a seat belt or brush your teeth? I know the questions may sound a bit offensive but I'm honestly interested in hearing people's motivations.

Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study

#110

Post by andy_ppp » Mon, Dec 23, 2019, 1:42 PM UTC

rzzzt wrote: post #72

has2k1 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is possible to imagine a potential casual process that leads to earlier death. What if pessimism creates a constant presence of key stress hormones (Adrenaline, Cortisol and Norepinephrine) and these are already linked to higher likelihoods of heart disease, cancer, ...

What if the constant presence of stress hormones makes people more prone to pessimism?

If you stress out mice even their grand children will also be stressed even if you remove any stressors from them? Essentially, this area of research is extremely complicated.