Pessimists write more reliable code. Optimists assume users won't do funny stuff. Society owes the early croakers gratitude for their dedicated pessimism. Oh, and git off my lawn!
People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
181–190 of 193 posts
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
the way people see it is that I dont react to bad situations. I have been called "stone cold". I have sometimes wondered if it is related to sociopathy. I am a giving person and would rather give than receive, so am not very selfish. However, bad things just dont bother me because there is always something positive that comes out of everything. When my wife had an aortic dissection and had a high chance of dying, peo…
Sincere question here: what makes you certain that you would have found happiness? I guess the fundamental difference between your way of thinking and most peoples' is that you seem to be absolutely convinced that happiness exists and is continuously experienced regardless of the state of reality. Therefore, regardless of what happens, there will be some form of happiness and you will experience it. I'm in awe of thi…
There's a book by Tony Hsieh (Zappos founder) called Delivering Happiness.
Near the end, he talks about three types of "happiness."
The first is pleasure. It's from food, fun, or other external experiences. While it can bring temporary happiness, you will always be looking for the next fix.
The second is happiness from passion, such as a hobby or working at your startup. You can go for years without success and still feel happy. However eventually you'll need some type of progress to keep going.
The third type is happiness from purpose. Think of it as working towards something bigger than yourself. This type of happiness can last a lifetime, even if all you do is sacrifice for it.
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#183I wish to be optimistic. My wife says that my pessimism and low energy is negatively impacting our kids. The article does not go into detail about what methods one can train on to become more optimistic. Does anyone know of some methods?
As someone else has mentioned in the thread, the book Learned Optimism is all about this. I have also found learning meditation from the book The Mind Illuminated to be helpful. You could also check out CBT, and/or the writings of Albert Ellis.
Fundamentally, you will need to learn to let go of your negative perspective. One thing that helped me with this is realizing that the facts of reality are one thing, and how I feel about them are another. These are entirely orthogonal, and rewiring yourself to react differently to things is very doable, especially if you realize that your negative reactions are not helpful.
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#184"Optimism Bias" improves our mental and physical well-being. Biases are irrational, by definition. Our mind is supposedly rational...and rationality is not always to our benefit. This kinda blew my mind when I was reading up some philosophy. My key takeaway was that rationality and logic is not always helpful to make decisions, esp. when it comes to complex systems such as people (i.e. relationships). As an engineer,…
>Biases are irrational, by definition. Not all biases are irrational...in fact most biases are in rational predispositions based on knowledge and/or first hand experience. Basically its an attempt to apply logic/rationality to unknown situations. Bias is always framed as a negative word/trait, and it certainly can be (like racial prejudice), but bias should also be looked at as an evolutionary tool humans can use to…
Two types of rationality are being conflated here, namely "close to the truth" and "increases my odds of surviving".
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
How could you possibly measure that? By the time that children even understand the concept of “optimism” (or even “future”), they have already had years (decades?) of positive or negative signals (either from their environment, or from their genes) that likely cause both optimism and success (such as non-abusive parents, health, etc.).
If you assume that everything will turn out bad, you wont even try. If you assume all people around you are assholes, you wont even try good relationships. Plus, people like better optimistically looking people and reward them more then pessimistic people with equal merit. Moreover, outward apparent optimism create illusion of success even when there is not actual real success backing it. (The optimism does not even…
Let's play this game:
If you assume that everything will turn out well, you're not going to be cautious
If you assume people around you are all good you're in for some surprise, not of the good kind , especially if you are a girl in a dark alley
Plus, I dislike optimism, I find it's childish, but I get a lot of rewards nonetheless from people around me for being honest.
The illusion of success is not success, believing in the illusion of something is called faith, and it's what killed the people who prayed together for the black plague to stop, spreading the diseases.
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Keeping informed is the duty of a citizen in a democracy" Sorry, but I have no such duty. We are free to do or not do as we wish. News media has evolved to make us angry and stressed and to pit us against each other, while encouraging us to come back for more. It's gotten much worse over time. After years of fulfilling my "duty" and forever frustrated that the more I learn, the more obvious it becomes that our probl…
> Sorry, but I have no such duty. We are free to do or not do as we wish. Well sure, depending how one thinks about it. From an individualist perspective/philosophy, you're correct. But this is only one of many ways of thinking about the matter. For example, would you advocate an individualist approach such as that for someone who is married with children? Could a similar argument be made for overall mankind? I can a…
Your take on what I'm saying and thinking is way off base.
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
We like to think of rationality as objectively true, but it’s not. Rationality is based on axioms that “feel right” and even the idea of being rational “feels good”. Is it rational to believe the parallel postulate? In unchanging laws of physics? In using logic with creatures who tend not to share your axioms? It comes down to a feeling. From a rational point of view, if rationality were always helpful it would be hi…
Is it rational to believe the likelihood of violent physical harm directed at you if you use a transit station in a sketchy neighborhood as opposed to one in a non-sketchy one? Does it "feel right" to use the sketchy one, despite everything you know about sketchiness of neighborhoods and crime in general?
Is sketchiness determined by an instantaneous feeling or a well-deliberated rational thought?
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Sorry, but I have no such duty. We are free to do or not do as we wish. Well sure, depending how one thinks about it. From an individualist perspective/philosophy, you're correct. But this is only one of many ways of thinking about the matter. For example, would you advocate an individualist approach such as that for someone who is married with children? Could a similar argument be made for overall mankind? I can a…
Your take on what I'm saying and thinking is way off base.
Are you willing and able to explain why/how it's off base?
And if not (to be a bit of a devil's advocate and unapologetic promoter of subversive ideologies like extreme rationalism), why not?
Possibly relevant: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21856809
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, there is that thing when optimism becomes euphemism for naive, not allowed to talk about problems and disadvantages. But I think that is manipulative way to see optimism. Sometimes chances are low or times are bad and optimism should not equal refusing to see that.
I think naivety is on the optimism spectrum. How do you define optimism such that it doesn't include deprioritizing negatives compared to positives?
> an optimist is said to see the glass as half full, while a pessimist sees the glass as half empty.
But even the optimist sees that the glass is only a half full.
Naivety is thinking that half full is the best possible outcome or the only possible outcome.
It literally means "lack of judgement"
Re: People who tend to be optimistic are likelier to live to 85 or more: study
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the root of it, and something most on HN won't accept. Optimistic people generally see and seek opportunity (either knowingly or unknowingly) more frequently than pessimists.
Won't accept? It seems startups are the same. "Rationally" a poor way to get rich, but if enough people miscaulate their odds (or enjoy it for nonmonetary reasons) we'll get a few big successes.
Most millionaires are those who started their own businesses or are self employed. Certainly not SV unicorns, but they run businesses you've never heard of started by ordinary people.
https://observer.com/2015/08/4-things-millionaires-have-in-c...