Too often, I meet people who consider optimism some kind of childish or naive behavior. It is somehow established in the British psyche that skepticism is directly correlated to intelligence. Ha!
I was happy to see a coherent explanation of why optimism is really a good approach to problems and not simply some delusional behavior. Please remember that optimism for optimism’s sake is likely delusional.
The Buddhist is taught:
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities,
in the expert’s mind there are few.”
—Shunryu Suzuki
On the face of it…you could interpret this to mean the expert is more efficient. And perhaps they are. But, the more studied interpretation indicates that the beginner’s mind may find the solution because they are starting with more options. I am not going to restate Presentation Zen’s entry…read it for yourself here.
Related posts:
The definition of expert in this post seems to be someone who is hemmed in by their own knowledge.
True experts are aware of the limitations of what they know and remain open to other possibilities. However the point is well made. It is often the non-expert who sees a possibility that the supposed experts don’t.
Antonio Gramsci counselled revolutionaries (people who want to change the whole world, though I’m just thinking of social enterprise at this point) to act in a manner that combines ‘optimism of the will, [with] pessimism of the intellect.’ Personally, I’m not against optimism of the intellect either. There seems to be nothing intrinsically naive about that.
As I see it the challenge is to be open to, to seize, the possibilities in a situation and act, whilst retaining our critical faculties and, above all, the capacity for reflective practice: Schon’s reflection in- and on- action. It’s when practice isn’t analysed that people get into a cycle of ‘we’ve tried that and it didn’t work’, or repeat what does work until everybody’s bored sick/the market’s saturated/the wave’s broken, at which point they revert to ‘we’ve tried that and…’ Pessimism overwhelming both intellect and will.
I hear Todd’s frustration at the “British psyche” and the cynicism of “experts”. Often, they are tired, demoralised individuals, not practising reflectively and no longer knowing how to change their behaviour and mind-set, staying with what they know because it seems safer/easier. But people learn by example – keep them coming!
Negativity can be so subtle. I’ve started to evaluate comments as to whether they are objective, pro or anti. Mostly they are subtly anti.
When I argue for improved public dialogue about rural regeneration in Exmoor and West Somerset, the reply is generally that everybody agrees but nobody wants just another talking shop.
Currently, there are, of course, locally no ‘talking shops’ for public engagement in regeneration policy but this small detail is ignored.
Subtly the naysayers are advancing a justification for not providing systems at all to enable the local general public to talk about and seek new projects for local regeneration.
The worst part of subtle negativity is that the comments can accumulate in our minds, weaken our resolve and then we find ourselves losing faith in our ideas.