Optimist or Pessimist?

[Moonface]

An interesting brief little sciency video about how genes can play a factor in this matter.


So which do you tend to be more like? I think I probably lean more towards pessimist, because I rarely look at something just positively. Therapy has been making it better over the last year+, but I know I have a habit of not getting excited for things too well until any possibility of something going wrong is impossible to happen. Even with a 4.0 GPA at college I still continue to be pessimistic about what my next grade is going to be until I hear before grading that my work is good, or see a good grade entered for it if I don't get any feedback until I get the grade itself. Not to say I don't have any optimism, but I just rarely buy into that without always considering it not working out for whatever reason.

[Kyng]

I've always been a pessimist. I guess it's because I'm a mathematician, and mathematics is an inherently pessimistic discipline: we're not allowed to accept anything unless we can absolutely prove it . Although, I don't think that's a healthy approach to the real world.

I try to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst - which I guess is a healthier outlook than outright pessimism!

[Moonface]

I try to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst - which I guess is a healthier outlook than outright pessimism!

Yeah, that's an outlook I've had for a long time. Unfortunately when my anxiety was really bad a few years ago my mind would get transfixed on the worst outcomes and put me in a state of panic.

[Dragon Lord]

I'm optimistically pessimistic.

[Mr EliteL]

I dislike the simple "Half Full vs Half Empty" analogy as for that particular "argument" I'd always go for y glass/drink is half full, however overall of the Optimist or Pessimist, I lean over into Pessimist more.

[Moonface]

I dislike the simple "Half Full vs Half Empty" analogy as for that particular "argument" I'd always go for y glass/drink is half full...

For me whether the glass is half full or half empty sometimes comes down to what it started as. If I fill a glass only halfway, it's half full. If I fill it fully but empty half of it by drinking it I'm calling it half empty because I emptied half of it.