About three years ago I read someone on here recommend the book, “Learned Optimism”. They said it was life changing.
I read it, did the work, and it is life changing. People with a pessimistic outlook are much less happy than people with an optimistic outlook. The book teaches you how each type thinks (for example, optimists think everything good that happens to them is personal and permanent and every bad thing that happens is impersonal and temporary. Pessimists are the opposite). The book then teaches you essentially a cognitive behavioral therapy technique to retrain your brain to think more like an optimist. It’s work but so worth it especially if you ever experience anxiety.
Weren’t you troubled by the fact that he admits optimists are factually wrong compared to pessimists, blame others, don’t admit fault, and just seem like generally unpleasant people (insurance salesmen and the type of person who talks on planes, for example)? Yeah, okay, they are happier, live longer, are more successful, get elected... but at what cost to the world? I came away thinking we should train the optimists to listen to pessimists more, not the opposite...
The book is not for everyone. By that I mean that there are people in the world that think everything they do will fail. That obsess on every interaction with friends and significant others trying to look for signs that they don’t like them anymore. People that are riddled with anxiety on a daily basis because they always expect bad things to happen. That catastrophize every minor negative thing that happens in their lives.
Those people will have their lives changed significantly for the better by following the program in the book.
I am not troubled that reading a book will give you Narcissist Personality Disorder or as you said turn you into an insurance salesman.
this book really didn't seem very helpful for me. as another commenter described, the book seems to very heavily imply that being a pollyanna-ish person is a superior state of being -- AKA, ignorance is bliss.
sure, i believe that. but it doesn't help those of us who can't look away from the real world.
i get that my critique of the book sounds like a strawman, but i genuinely can't escape the interpretation of the argument that i proposed here on the basis of what the book says alone.
I read it, did the work, and it is life changing. People with a pessimistic outlook are much less happy than people with an optimistic outlook. The book teaches you how each type thinks (for example, optimists think everything good that happens to them is personal and permanent and every bad thing that happens is impersonal and temporary. Pessimists are the opposite). The book then teaches you essentially a cognitive behavioral therapy technique to retrain your brain to think more like an optimist. It’s work but so worth it especially if you ever experience anxiety.