Sunday, May 15, 2011

Optimism vs overoptimism

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/opinion/15Sharot.html?_r=1&hp

My friend Madison posted this. I felt the desire to respond.


The issue I have with studies and articles like this is that while people overestimate the positivity of their own outcome, they probably underestimate their own ability to DEAL with bad things or less-than-optimal things that happen to them - this is largely driven by personality. For example:

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bakadesuyo/~3/44Ff7Bcp2O8/why-are-we-so-bad-at-predicting-our-future-ha


Even if you are pessimistic (or realistic) about your chances of extreme success (either professionally, in marriage, or whatever else), you can still have an optimistic bias if you believe you'll be able to handle that outcome alright. This may not be 100% true with health, but with most other things it probably is true.



I've been sporadic blogging recently, I know. I have a few ideas for future posts but life is EXTREMELY busy with the album and other stuff... but I'll be back ( :


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