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
Punctuating a list | Punctuation | Grammar | Khan Academy
Hey Paige, what’s up? Damon: Is this right? Okay, so I’m about to go to the grocery store, and it looks like it says I need to get squid, pickles, and chocolate at the grocery store. Yeah, did you want squid pickles? Paige: No, I wanted squid and pickle…
Stock Market. Ponzi Scheme. Fully explained. (No Music)
When we think about the stock market, we think about money, the finance industry, businesses, and making money from investing in successful businesses. The belief is investing in successful businesses is what leads to investment profits, and there’s a dir…
The TRUTH about Fundrise Real Estate Investing
What’s up you guys? It’s Graham here. So this gets brought up a lot: Fundrise real estate investing with some pretty substantial returns. So what do I think about it? Is it legit? Is it a good way to invest in real estate, or is it just an overly simplifi…
Homeroom With Sal & Mayor Sam Liccardo - Wednesday, June 3
Hi everyone, welcome to the daily homeroom livestream. For those of you all who are wondering what this is, this is a series of conversations that we’ve started over the last few months. It was, I guess, catalyzed by COVID, but it’s a way of staying in co…
Order of operations introduction | 6th grade | Khan Academy
Every few months you’ll see an expression like this go viral on social media because it looks simple, but depending on how people interpret this expression, they often get different answers. So first, why don’t you pause this video and think about what yo…
The Hard-Working Man | Port Protection
When you get to my age, you always got to go slow. Makes everything harder, but I plan to continue doing my work if I can. Setting down roots in Port Protection requires a commitment to living at the edge of one’s limitations. If you comprehend that commi…