Money Psychology 17: The seduction of pessimism
Optimism sounds like a sales pitch. Pessimism sounds like someone trying to help you. Pessimism sounds smarter. It’s intellectually captivating, and it’s paid more attention than optimism.
Imagine Japanese people writing: “Within the lifetime our economy will grow to almost 15 times the size it was before the end of the war. Our life expectancy will nearly double. Our stock market will produce returns like any country in history has rarely seen. We will…”
They would have been laughed out of the room and asked to seek a medical evaluation.
It’s because progress happens too slowly to notice, but setbacks happen too quickly to ignore. It’s easier to create a narrative around pessimism, and that’s good.
Pessimism reduces expectations. And expecting things to be bad is the best way to be pleasantly surprised when they're not, which ironically is something to be optimistic about.
[The Psychology of Money: Lesson 17 of 18]
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