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
How The Ultra Rich Travel The World
Once you get to a certain level of wealth, the way you operate changes. Security, privacy, and convenience take the place of wanderlust and going wherever the road takes you. Because look, you’ve got places to be, meetings to attend, and you gotta be on t…
Khan Academy Student Demo
Hi everyone, this is Jeremy Shiffling from Khan Academy. Thanks so much for taking time to join me in this big week, either before the start of school or in the middle of the start of school, depending on where you’re calling from. But wherever you are in…
Are Helicopters Gyroscopes? - Smarter Every Day 48
Hey, it’s me, Destin. Welcome to Smarter Every Day. So, you know you’re in trouble when you have to break out the tinker toys to explain a concept. What are you gonna build? (son) Tinker toy ducks, scrod and rolls over your ham. [??] Good idea. What are …
How I was held at gunpoint while selling a private jet!
The first jet I ever sold in my life, I was held at gunpoint 3 ft away from me. It’s a long story. So, the first time I sold the jet, I was 23 years old. I flew to America, to North Carolina. We were signing a deal with a Venezuelan buyer; he had two of h…
Competition is for Losers with Peter Thiel (How to Start a Startup 2014: 5)
All right, good afternoon. Uh, today’s speaker is Peter Thiel. Peter was the founder of PayPal and Palantir and Founders Fund, and has invested in, uh, most of the tech companies in Silicon Valley. And he’s going to talk about strategy and competition. Th…
NEW IRS TAX FOR VENMO AND PAYPAL USERS! #shorts
So there’s a lot of confusion about a new IRS tax code that requires you to report your Venmo and PayPal transactions to the IRS if you receive more than $600 a year beginning on January 1st. But here’s what most people are not telling you: even though t…