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
Calculating t statistic for slope of regression line | AP Statistics | Khan Academy
[Instructor] Jian obtained a random sample of data on how long it took each of 24 students to complete a timed reaction game and a timed memory game. He noticed a positive linear relationship between the times on each task. Here is a computer output on th…
Scaling functions introduction | Transformations of functions | Algebra 2 | Khan Academy
So this is a screenshot of Desmos. It’s an online graphing calculator. What we’re going to do is use it to understand how we can go about scaling functions, and I encourage you to go to Desmos and try it on your own, either during this video or after. Le…
Division strategies for decimal quotients
In this video, we’re going to come up with some strategies for division when the quotient isn’t a whole number, when it’s going to be a decimal. So, let’s try to compute 3 divided by 2. Pause the video and see if you can figure out what that is going to b…
Irregular plural nouns | the MUTANT PLURALS | Grammar | Khan Academy
Hello Garans! Welcome to irregular plurals part four: the mutant plurals. Ooh, yes, friends! These words have mutant superpowers, uh, in that they can transform weirdly and obnoxiously, not obeying any other rules of English pluralization. But here’s the…
It’s much easier to build when you’re optimistic.
We all, you all, get to create this future. Yes, and there’s this thing where it’s cooler and edgier and more punk rock. Yes, to be like everything is, and that’s a good high horse to be on if you want to be cool. But if you’re actually building things an…
Subject, direct object, and indirect object | Syntax | Khan Academy
Hello Chrome, Mary, and hello Rosie. Hi David! So, today we’re going to be talking about subject, direct object, and indirect object, identifying those within a sentence. But first, I suppose we should figure out what those things are. So, we’ve talked a…