Pessimism vs. Optimism

Subscribe to the podcast and notes: https://qurantalk.podbean.com/ Quran translation on iOS: https://apple.co/2C1YGXj Additional Resources: http://www.masjidtucson.org Contact: qurantalk (at) gmail (dot) com   Evolution vs. De-evolution Sign of intelligence is that new information is created E. coli Long-term Experiment on Evolution - Started 24 February 1988.[2] 66,000 in November 2016.[3] No new molecular machines No newly designed cell structures No new protein-coding sections of DNA Evolution vs De-Evolution Example of how to make a car go faster - throw out the seats http://myxo.css.msu.edu/ecoli/ Because it is easier to destroy than to build Ask you what are some decisions in your life you can make to make your life worse? Easy  Run out in front of traffic Poke your eyes out Burn all your savings Hit your head with a hammer Hold your breath underwater until you pass out If I ask you what can be done to make the future WORSE You can probably come up with a whole bunch of ideas Ask you what decisions you can make to make your life BETTER? Little harder - At best you will come up with ideas of what to remove not what to add Easier to break down rather than to build  Because it is easier to destroy than to build If I ask you what can you do to make the future better More difficult Easier to point out the downside and all the reasons something can fail rather than how it can succeed But more ideas does not mean that the ideas are any better - but makes us feel smart Typically an inherent bias that we equate things that we can imagine as more likely than things we can’t …e.g.e shark attacks Pessimism isn't just more common than optimism, it also sounds smarter. Pessimist are intellectually captivating, and people pay more attention to them rather than optimist who are often viewed as an oblivious sucker. If you say the world has been getting better you may get away with being called naïve and insensitive. Harvard professor Teresa Amabile shows that those publishing negative book reviews are seen as smarter and more competent than those giving positive reviews of the same book. "Only pessimism sounds profound. Optimism sounds superficial," she wrote. Why? Here are a few other reasons I've observed for why pessimism gets so much attention. [4:147] What will GOD gain from punishing you, if you became appreciative and believed? GOD is Appreciative, Omniscient. Complaining makes us feel like we are smart There is a form of an iQ/creativity test where the objective is to see how many ideas you can come up in a given amount of time: What can you do with a brick? Come up with different ways that someone can go from place to another? The more answers one comes up with the smarter they feel This is good for creativity, but there are somethings that the quantity of answers is not what is important but the quality 1. Optimism appears oblivious to risks, so by default pessimism looks more intelligent.  2. Pessimism requires action, whereas optimism means staying the course. Pessimism is "SELL, GET OUT, RUN," which grabs your attention because it's an action you need to take right now. You don't want to read the article later or skim over the details, because you might get hurt. Optimism is mostly, "Don't worry, stay the course, we'll be alright," which is easy to ignore since it doesn't require doing anything.  3. Optimism sounds like a sales pitch, while pessimism sounds like someone trying to help you. And that's often the truth. But in general, most of the time, optimism is the correct default setting, and pessimism can be as big a sales pitch as anything – especially if it's around emotional topics like money and politics.  4. Pessimists extrapolate present trends without accounting for how reliably markets adapt. That's important, because pessimistic views often start with a foundation of rational analysis, so the warning appears as reasonable as it is scary. Thomas Malthus 1800 Prophets were the ultimate optimi