Pessimism sounds smart, but it’s the easy route in my opinion.
Being pessimistic makes it seem like you are well-versed in subjects, you have done your research, and you have some authority on the matter.
I think it is needed in how you view the world in certain circumstances, but I think it’s ultimately lazy.
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to take something that already exists and imagine what it will be like in the worst case scenario. Just flip on the news and you’ll be handed the script of pessimism to go around and spread to others.
Optimism on the other hand takes more effort.
Optimism is not just saying, “everything will get better and nothing will go wrong.” That’s naive.
Optimism to me is having the knowledge that things will go wrong, sometimes terribly wrong, but will end up better over time.
Optimism is more difficult than pessimism because it’s much more difficult (impossible for me tbh) to imagine new medicines, new technologies, new ideas, and/or new events that haven’t yet occurred. Optimism takes innovation, fresh thoughts, and seeing progress that others don’t or can’t.
For me, I’m pretty pessimistic about social media. But that’s just because I can already see how it damages certain aspects of the human life so easily and readily. If you were ask me, “how can this get better?” I would have a hard time coming up with something.
How can I envision the way social media will transform into a more human, empathetic, and constructive form of communication?
If I knew that I would be a billionaire.
But I do believe there are people who see the problems and are working on a better way.
A healthy dose of both is needed, but being more optimistic towards life will make it easier to get out of bed in the morning, interact with others, and find peace.
Potential 