Learned Optimism

http://www.zacharyburt.com/2010/05/learned-optimism/

by zackattack • 16 years ago

31 6 16 years ago

zacharyburt.com

FinnVillus• 16 years ago

Nice article. I would love to be an optimist but I don't think I can do it.

Psyonic• 16 years ago

Certainly not with that attitude! ;)

kentosi• 16 years ago

Quite complicated - but an interesting analysis. I see that this overlaps (or even is?) neuro-linguistic programming.

However, it seems to go even broader than simply converting your mental programming from saying "i must go to work" to "i want to go to work". The way I read this article is: - Optimism: The bad parts of my life are temporary. (implying that the good parts are the way it should be). - Pessimism: The good parts of my life are temporary. (implying that the bad parts are the way it should be)

Qz• 16 years ago

Enlightenment: life is temporary.

billswift• 16 years ago

I started reading that book many years ago, but quit when he admitted that pessimists' views were more accurate. If people need to hide from reality to accomplish something, people are incredibly screwed up.

10ren• 16 years ago

Literally, you're saying that because he stated a truth about pessimists, you decided to not read further. I think you're probably actually implying that you object to him promoting optimism, even though it is not accurate. Two counters to this:

1. a realist can use these ideas to be more accurate in their thinking. By being aware of when we are generalizing and personalizing, we can reconsider whether that is accurate or not. Although he said that a pessimist is more accurate than an optimist, it seems that a pessimist is not perfectly accurate, because pessimism creates distortions when over generalizing or over personalizing.

2. Your premise here, of insisting on positive knowledge, is a trap, because many things are unknown, and when failure has a low cost, experimentation is the rational strategy. Optimism supports this approach (you don't take failure seriously, and you keep trying.) But when failure has a high cost, being cautious is a more rational strategy. Pessimism supports this.

That is, for acting in the world, one should weight probabilities of success/failure by costs and rewards/dangers (as opposed to only observing, in order to discover probabilities for their own sake, as a scientist might, who isn't concerned about making something happen).

3. a bonus thought from my 101 Philosophy: studies have shown that athletes who believe they will perform better, actually do perform better. That is, an inaccurate estimation becomes accurate. Other Pygmalion effect:

> "Simply put, when teachers expect students to do well and show intellectual growth, they do; when teachers do not have such expectations, performance and growth are not so encouraged and may in fact be discouraged in a variety of ways" http://www.ntlf.com/html/pi/9902/pygm_1.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect http://chir.ag/wiki/pygmalion

For a literary perspective, there's also "My Fair Lady" (based on a play called Pygmalion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(play)#Adaptations) and this intriguing sequence from Paris Je T'aime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIa0454xfyI

Learned Optimism

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