From my notes on Coursera’s Positive Psychology course: The most recent geological epoch that we lived through, the Pleistocene, was the Ice Ages. Famine, flood, ice, drought, more ice. Now, imagine a primate mentality that thought, “What a lovely day today out there. I bet tomorrow is going to be really lovely as well.” That mentality got crushed by the ice. The mentality that survived, the brains that we have, are bad weather brains. They’re brains that say “looks like a nice day out there, but tomorrow the ice is coming.” And that is the way we process, automatically, information about a good world. Depression, anger, paranoia have served us very well. In the Ice Ages, it was a very good idea to think that bad stuff was coming. But consider the possibility that human progress actually exists, and that prosperity, a good world, living well, not having a tragedy… Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Optimism
Aside
Daily Affirmation: If you’re reading this, then nothing you’ve encountered so far has killed you.
Pizza and Pessimism
“There’s a slice of pizza missing,” my son announces. When I got home from work, there were two slices left over from last night. I ate one and left one for him. “I calibrated my appetite for two slices,” he says. “The pessimist,” I say, “sees that there’s one slice missing. The optimist sees that there’s one slice left.” Read more →
Why I’m Angry
I believe in a world where I can set something down and it will still be there in the same place the next time I need it. Unfortunately, this turns out to be a dangerously optimistic notion about what the world and other people are like. Read more →
BP Looks at the Bright Side
Overheard
In Case of Emergency
Grab your coat. Get your hat. Leave your worries on the doorstep. Direct your feet to the sunny side of the street. Read more →
Neuheisel!
Optimism is still full. It’s a full trough here at UCLA. One thing that will keep us from it happening is if we start to believe it’s not on the right track. Those of us in the trenches, I expect everyone to fall in line with that. But the leader of the ship has to tell you it’s gonna land. That’s all I know how to do. — Coach Rick Neuheisel Read more →
The Half-Full Glass
I put a half-full cup of soda from Extra Mile in the fridge and went out to run some errands. When I got back home, the soda was gone. “What happened to my soda?” I asked. “I cleaned out the refrigerator,” my wife said. The optimist sees the glass as half full. The pessimist sees the glass as half empty and throws it out, even if it belongs to someone else . . . Read more →
Albert Schweitzer was a Bore
An optimist sees a green light everywhere; a pessimist sees only the red light. The truly wise person is colorblind. — Albert Schweitzer A true optimist is a man who can look in a toilet bowl and see only corn. — Ben Greenman Read more →
Wishing and Hoping: A Metaphor
“Where’d you get the Wish Hope Dream Post-Its?” I ask a co-worker. “Why?” she asks. “Is that your mantra?” “No, I was thinking more along the lines of wishes, hopes and dreams being peeled away one by one until you’re left with nothing.” “That’s an optimistic way of looking at it.” “It sure is.” Read more →