Well, of course…that’s what THEY tell you.
3 Likes
Funny, the paper referenced in the article
doesn’t cite the Lang et al. 2013 paper referenced in your Smithsonian article:
3 Likes
ENGINEER: That glass is not the optimal size.
Naw man. That glass has 2x margin, which is just right.
2 Likes
ME: Let me see that glass. Now it’s empty, problem solved.
6 Likes
MATHEMATICIAN: places Klein bottle on table, asks you to clarify what you mean by “full”.
6 Likes
I love the way everyone here equates optimist with panglossian fool.
My initial reaction to this was that it made sense, since we know that stress has negative health consequences, and an optimist would experience much less stress from any such worries.
7 Likes
You’re right. It’s probably the nature of the times we live in. There seem to be fewer and fewer self-aware people who can be genuinely optimistic. We’re a bunch of Tony Sopranos.
5 Likes
pffffffftttt!
The opposite of optimist is ‘realist’, not pessimist.
(That took me about 55 mins to post. So, either I’m an irretrievable moron or so, so completely correct.)
2 Likes
Yeah, well, ya know, that’s just like, uh, your opinion, man.
3 Likes
I’ve never understood this. It completely matters what’s in the glass. If it’s raw sewage, then I’m glad that it’s not completely full.
4 Likes
If the people used for this study are from the US, I’d also consider that the ability to pay for medical care and optimism probably have a strong correlation.
5 Likes
Ugh! Why would anyone want to live so long?
Really, at the end you’ll wish you had more time be it at 60 or 100. There is no satisfaction in this mortal world.
1 Like
But if you have an Optimist, you’ll have a lot of fun at the lake or the seaside, make more physical activity, stay away from the cocktail bar, become more healthy and live longer. Look only where the boom is going…
9 Likes
If you look at the past, the history is full of bad stuff. Bigotry, war, famine, pestilence, economical turmoil, political strife, personal trouble and pain are constants of the historical human experience, yet people have been optimists (or pessimists) throughout the ages.
I think there’s two things going on here. The first is the age-old fallacy that mistakes negativity and cynicism for wisdom and profundity. The second and more interesting one is the way the modern media, especially the internet, makes the world seem so much smaller. This in turn means we’re constantly confronted with bad things we can do nothing about, because they’re too removed from us, or too big for any single person to deal with.
Neither of us is going to be able to fix the US political system, or end global powerty, or stop climate change. We need a perspective change, to realize we can’t fix those, so we shouldn’t fret about that. We should identify what we can do then do that, and stop worrying about the rest.
7 Likes
Dang optimists. Who do they think they are?!?!
1 Like
That’s a funny way to spell ‘pedant’
7 Likes
“Apparently optimistic people eat better, exercise, manage stress more effectively, and generally lead healthier lives.”
Maybe I’m the exception that proves the rule; cool! 
3 Likes
I agree that’s the key factor that differentiates our times in this respect (at least here in the West).
That’s where Stoicism is useful for me. It may not make me an optimist but, ironically, it doesn’t result in crushing pessimism either. Kind of the opposite of this line from “Clockwise”:
5 Likes
I’m pretty sure I am one. Anxious, depressed, but optimistic that is. Not sure why it seems like a paradox actually? Being optimistic while also acknowledging one is depressed and will likely always be often just looks like choosing to get up the next day and go on living with depression because it’s “still probably worth it somehow.” Much like being brave when you have anxiety may look like attending a party even though you know you won’t be able to bring yourself to talk to people much and you’ll probably be the first to leave because it you might get something out of the interaction anyway. It’s something almost nobody will have respect for because it just looks like sucking at life from the outside, or something it’s hard to even acknowledge because it’s completely invisible to anyone else as a choice. But it’s a big difference at the lived experience level actually.
7 Likes
