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
Brave New Words - Kevin Roose & Sal Khan
Hi everyone, it’s here from Khan Academy, and as some of you all know, I have released my second book, Brave New Words, about the future of AI in education and work. It’s available wherever you might buy your books. But as part of the research for that bo…
Economic Headwinds Are Great For Business Innovations
Foreign [Applause] [Music] Welcome! This is a session on how economic headwinds fuel creativity. I’m sure many of you in the audience, no matter where you work—agency side, client side, you run a business, you’re an entrepreneur—you’re probably wondering …
What Truly Matters To A Stoic
Hello everyone and welcome! This is the seventh edition already of the Einzelgänger Q&A. A while ago, I got a question from a follower named Sofia, below my video about Stoicism and not giving a… you know what. This particular video is about caring le…
Multiplying complex numbers graphically example: -1-i | Precalculus | Khan Academy
We are told suppose we multiply a complex number z by negative one minus i. So, this is z right over here. Which point represents the product of z and negative one minus i? Pause this video and see if you can figure that out. All right, now let’s work th…
What it’s like to watch a Total Solar Eclipse
It’s August 21st, 2017, the day of the total solar eclipse. I’m in Madras, Oregon. The skies are clear. My sky tracker, it’s meant to move the camera with the sky, so it compensates for the Earth’s rotation. That should help me keep the sun in shot as the…
15 Luxuries in Life You Have Access To (Are You Using Them?)
You know, luxuries used to be about the things we couldn’t have. They were aspirational, always out of reach, and reserved for the elite. They elevated people’s lives far beyond the ordinary. But our definition of luxury has changed. Those first two facto…