People are Lazy
A few years ago, I concluded from my experience as a teacher that people, at their most basic level, are lazy and crave simple answers. How I came to this conclusion is a story in itself. Well, turns out that there is a biological reason for this. In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel [...]
Turn That Smile Upside Down
I’ll stop being a cynic just as soon as science stops proving me right. The Daily Beast has an article that summarizes the results of a new study. One which, once again, concludes that blind optimism is dangerous for yourself and others:
In contrast to plain optimism, the unrealistic kind characterizes people who continue to believe there will be a rosy outcome despite clear evidence and even personal experience to the contrary. While reasonable optimism serves us well—it lowers stress and anxiety, and can even reduce the risk of developing various diseases and help us recover faster, according to studies like this one—the unrealistic kind can backfire badly. It’s part of why people save too little for retirement (“things will work out somehow”), fail to use sunscreen (“skin cancer? no way”), and don’t make prenuptial agreements (most people estimate their risk of divorce as zero percent.)
Finally, science has proven what we all knew: that blind optimists actively ignore dissenting information and do not justify their world view with facts.
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