You can consider optimism and pessimism as two different types of biases.
“Optimists” supposedly see the world in a way where things are better than they actually are.
“Pessimists” supposedly see the world in a way where things are worse than they actually are.
“Realists” are meant to be the people who see the world for what it actually is.
It’s striking that people who are “optimistic” are often derided for being too ambitious. The people who deride them call themselves “realists”.
However, it is true that 30% of entrepreneurs actually succeed (that’s actually a massively large percentage when you think about it), it’s true that Silicon Valley continues to innovate and create companies with billion dollar plus valuations and it’s true that Hollywood continues to provide all the major blockbusters in the world.
While most of the world consider themselves as realists, the people who are called “optimistic” continue to succeed.
Could it be that the general public who consider themselves “realists” are actually “pessimists”? And could it be that the so-called “optimists” out there are actually the realists?
Just because optimists are in the minority, doesn’t mean that they are wrong. After all, they continue to prove everyone else wrong.
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