yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Rational Optimism Is the Way Out


2m read
·Nov 3, 2024

Processing might take a few minutes. Refresh later.

In general, professions in which you get your feedback from other members of that profession tend to get corrupted. When you see a journalist writing articles to impress other journalists, or a restauranteur running a restaurant that's designed to impress other foodies and other restaurateurs, those end up not being practical and high quality. They may receive accolades and prizes within certain elite circles, but they're not reflecting reality.

Where someone is getting feedback from either Mother Nature, like a scientist or an experimentalist, or from free markets, where other people are voting with their money and their time, those are going to be much better predictors. The people who are operating in the real world and are getting paid for it tend to be optimists. The people who are operating in ivory towers are incented to be pessimists.

To be an entrepreneur, you need to be optimistic about the fact that you're creating something that other people are going to find value in. People who have a pessimistic philosophy tend to have a pessimistic psychology as well. If you're constantly thinking about all the ways in which the world is going to rack and ruin, then this has a day-to-day impact upon your outlook on the rest of society and on your family, on your friends, on everything. Because you think that this world is condemned, you're going to feel that weight upon your shoulders, and it's going to come through in the way in which you present yourself to the rest of the world.

We see a lot of this on social media right now. Entrepreneurs are typically too busy to spend a whole lot of time on social media. But you do get scientists, academic journalists who are depressed with life because they have a pessimistic view of reality, and that's got to have an impact upon their subjective experience of the world, unlike people who are creating, trying to bring something new into existence.

Unfortunately, the pessimism is self-fulfilling. Here, we take the stance that all evils are due to lack of knowledge. Rational optimism is the way out. The data supports it, history supports it, and we can always come up with good explanations through creativity to improve our lives and everybody else's lives. So stay optimistic.

More Articles

View All
Worked example: Using formal charges to evaluate nonequivalent resonance structures | Khan Academy
[Instructor] We’re told that three possible resonance structures for the thiocyanate ion are shown below. All right, there we have them. Based on formal charges, which of the three structures contributes most to the resonance hybrid of thiocyanate? And …
LESSONS FROM STOICISM TO STAY CALM | THE ART OF SERENITY REVEALED | STOICISM INSIGHTS
The art of temperance is the great mastery of choosing to resist rather than to respond. It is the ability to make deliberate decisions as opposed to impulsive ones. In the stoic state, along with wisdom, temperance is one of the four essential virtues. …
Where to BUY Uranium and other DONGS!
Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. And over the weekend, I was in Los Angeles, where I got to meet up with Henry, the creator of MinutePhysics. But let’s get to some DONGS. MinutePhysics recommended Grow Cube. You win by selecting the elements in the correct ord…
Donald Trump's Tour of His Manhattan Office
This office right now is all you, and it’s a little bit junky. Yeah, this I just got a few weeks ago. Houses from the Marine Corps, that’s the chair for the apprentice. Those are different things. Tom Brady’s Super Bowl helmet. Wow, this is Mike Tyson’s b…
Unlocking the Power of Your Mind with Neuralink Technology #Shorts
Neuralink cuts out the middleman and allows input and output directly from your brain to whatever you’re doing on a machine or vice versa. It’s like going from writing using a quill to having a pencil, to having a keyboard, to having Siri, to now potentia…
Safari Live - Day 364 | National Geographic
This program features live coverage of an African safari and may include animal kills and carcasses. Viewer discretion is advised. Good afternoon everybody! I hope that you are all well. Like seven, I am. I’m Trishala and of course, like I said, I am on …