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
3 Similarities Between Buddhism & Stoicism
As some people in the comment section have already pointed out, Buddhism and Stoicism are actually quite alike. This is quite surprising because Stoicism was founded in the Greek city of Athens while Buddhism originates from India. Although there’s no his…
Teaching Math with Khanmigo
Meet Conmigo, your aid-driven companion who’s revolutionizing teaching for a more engaging and efficient experience. Kigo has many exciting features that support teachers, and this video will showcase ways you can use Kigo to create course-specific mathem…
The Stock Market Is About To Go Wild | DO THIS NOW
What’s Graham up? It’s guys you hear. So today, we will attempt to answer one of the oldest and most elusive questions in the entire universe: why the stock market is about to go absolutely insane throughout these next few months. With some of the bigges…
Elephant Encounter in 360 - Ep. 2 | The Okavango Experience
Travie giant elephants in front of you, interacting with you, connecting with you, smelling you, listening to you, looking at you, telling you to stop, telling you to go away, telling you to stay. I am fine with you. Those interactions are powerful to me.…
Chip Rescues Agnes | Life Below Zero
My back here, it’s got coolant all over the ground. I was just wondering if you’re going to just double up and keep going or else, um, because we’re almost here. Finish the delivery. Finish the delivery. We’ll go deliver this thing, and we’ll come back h…
Expedition Everest: The Mission - 360 | National Geographic
[Music] What we’re supposed to be doing here is not simply a climb in the mountains. Coming up, the scientific objectives that we’re doing here with global climate change are really what define our expedition and will allow us to bring back some informat…