5 ms·

In case of some failure - like not achieving your goal, losing somebody close, miscommunication with other people etc. - do you also stay happy? And what about

by comboy 6y ago

In case of some failure - like not achieving your goal, losing somebody close, miscommunication with other people etc. - do you also stay happy? And what about anger? Or boredom? Do you keep smile on your face when fighting with package compatibility of packages that you did not mean to upgrade but needed to because you wanted to change some small thing real quick? Legit questions. From evolutionary standpoint I guess we should see biases on both sides, but back when living in the wild I would assume that more pessimistic worldview would be associated with higher survival rate. Not the case in today's world.

bambax 6y ago
> back when living in the wild I would assume that more pessimistic worldview would be associated with higher survival rate There is plenty of research that shows the opposite: only the optimists survive, and the harsher the environment, the truer this gets. Pessimists tend to give up, optimists see opportunities others miss (within reason of course).
- comboy 6y ago
  Pessimist may have been a wrong word. Maybe something along the lines of anxiety that can make you miserable in today's safe environment but could make you think more about potential problems and prepare for them ahead of time. Like "I need to have more food for winter" vs "It's going to be fine, it's such a nice day today".
  - raducu 6y ago
    You are both on to something. Optimists are more likely to survive situations that are survivable given their lack of planning. Pesimists are more likely to survive by planning around crysises and avoiding them. There can be selection bias in both cases, and that's why we still have both.
- bencollier49 6y ago
  I blogged about this recently. There's been a recent trend to fetishize optimism in companies. "Pessimists Are Welcome To Apply" https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pessimists-welcome-apply-ben-collier https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pessimists-welcome-apply-ben-...
jjcm 6y ago
In the same way that someone with chronic depression can still have days when they're happy, I can certainly still have days when I'm sad. I'd say it's much to a lesser degree though and I've almost never had negative emotions carry on to the following day. Anger is pretty much non-existant for me. I had issues with a previous girlfriend because she felt I didn't care about her since I wouldn't get angry at things (she wanted to feel like I was willing to fight for her). Boredom is inescapable. I'm as susceptible to that as anyone. I highly suspect that's just because we've tailored our existence around high information density activities in our web-based existence. Code can be frustrating for sure, but I think I always know that when I am struggling with something, I'm learning from it and it makes me happy. When something REAL dumb happens, then really what can you do but laugh at it? I agree with you about the evolution of it. I think the optimistic worldview is not advantageous in high risk environments. Along those lines as well I highly suspect that there are genetic components to my happiness. My father has a similar but not as exaggerated disposition. Things just really don't get us down that much. Here's one of my favorite pictures of him after our house burned down in the 2007 California wildfires: https://image.non.io/fire.webp https://image.non.io/fire.webp
- comboy 6y ago
  Sounds like a normal non-depressed human to me, is what I wanted to say before I saw the picture :) Thanks.
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
  That looks like a man that doesn't let life hand him lemons without a juicer. Thanks for sharing that!
- rpiguy 6y ago
  I am glad I am not the only one. Thank you for posting. Sometimes when you tell people it is difficult to not be happy and to get angry, they treat you like a skinny person humble bragging about how they can't gain weight no matter how much they eat. It is just a thing in your genes and I am sure it came from my grandfather who survived the Bataan death march and Odonnel prison camp and was up until his death one of the happiest people I ever knew.

by comboy 6y ago

bambax 6y ago

> back when living in the wild I would assume that more pessimistic worldview would be associated with higher survival rate There is plenty of research that shows the opposite: only the optimists survive, and the harsher the environment, the truer this gets. Pessimists tend to give up, optimists see opportunities others miss (within reason of course).

comboy 6y ago
Pessimist may have been a wrong word. Maybe something along the lines of anxiety that can make you miserable in today's safe environment but could make you think more about potential problems and prepare for them ahead of time. Like "I need to have more food for winter" vs "It's going to be fine, it's such a nice day today".
- raducu 6y ago
  You are both on to something. Optimists are more likely to survive situations that are survivable given their lack of planning. Pesimists are more likely to survive by planning around crysises and avoiding them. There can be selection bias in both cases, and that's why we still have both.
bencollier49 6y ago
I blogged about this recently. There's been a recent trend to fetishize optimism in companies. "Pessimists Are Welcome To Apply" https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pessimists-welcome-apply-ben-collier https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pessimists-welcome-apply-ben-...

jjcm 6y ago

In the same way that someone with chronic depression can still have days when they're happy, I can certainly still have days when I'm sad. I'd say it's much to a lesser degree though and I've almost never had negative emotions carry on to the following day. Anger is pretty much non-existant for me. I had issues with a previous girlfriend because she felt I didn't care about her since I wouldn't get angry at things (she wanted to feel like I was willing to fight for her). Boredom is inescapable. I'm as susceptible to that as anyone. I highly suspect that's just because we've tailored our existence around high information density activities in our web-based existence. Code can be frustrating for sure, but I think I always know that when I am struggling with something, I'm learning from it and it makes me happy. When something REAL dumb happens, then really what can you do but laugh at it? I agree with you about the evolution of it. I think the optimistic worldview is not advantageous in high risk environments. Along those lines as well I highly suspect that there are genetic components to my happiness. My father has a similar but not as exaggerated disposition. Things just really don't get us down that much. Here's one of my favorite pictures of him after our house burned down in the 2007 California wildfires: https://image.non.io/fire.webp https://image.non.io/fire.webp

comboy 6y ago
Sounds like a normal non-depressed human to me, is what I wanted to say before I saw the picture :) Thanks.
ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
That looks like a man that doesn't let life hand him lemons without a juicer. Thanks for sharing that!
rpiguy 6y ago
I am glad I am not the only one. Thank you for posting. Sometimes when you tell people it is difficult to not be happy and to get angry, they treat you like a skinny person humble bragging about how they can't gain weight no matter how much they eat. It is just a thing in your genes and I am sure it came from my grandfather who survived the Bataan death march and Odonnel prison camp and was up until his death one of the happiest people I ever knew.