| Optimism |
 This transcript of a talk is meant for computer programmers, so there are some technical parts. But the speaker/writer, Reg Braithwaite, does such an excellent job at explaining the mechanics of optimism versus pessimism that it is worth sharing. It is based on a book, "Learned Optimism", by Dr. Martin Seligman. It is all about:
- personal vs. impersonal. What are you taking "personally" or not? - general vs. specific. What do you take to apply to everything under all conditions, versus what do you take to be an exact, one-of-a-kind isolated event? - permanent vs. temporary. What is forever, all the time, unchangable, versus what just happens once in a specific moment and then is forgotten? The simple secret is that for a pessimist anything that looks like failure, criticism or bad news will be interpreted to be about them personally, and it will be total and all inclusive, and forever. Whereas any good news will be something that had nothing to do with them, that only happened once, under very specific conditions. For the optimist it is simply the opposite. Bad things might happen, briefly, under specific conditions, but it doesn't have much to do with you, and it is quickly forgotten. Whereas good news will say something about you, demonstrating pervasive goodness that will always be available. [ Articles / motivation | 21 May 2009 @ 04:10 | 1090 comments | PermaLink ] More > |