Optimists and Pessimists

I've always considered myself a realist, though I think that comes across to many people as being pessimistic. That doesn't mean that people consider me morose or anything, as far as I can tell, but rather that I tend to gravitate towards counterarguments rather than support when hearing of a new idea. (Of course, like virtually everybody else, I have cognitive biases that attenuate my search for counterarguments when it is my idea under discussion.)

I'm not against folks looking on the bright-side, as long as they don't become blinded to potential dangers (i.e., "we don't have to worry about climate change, because everything will work out for the best"). Life can be hard and not necessarily fair. The best ideas don't always win, and just "being positive" is no guarantee that everything will be OK. Barbara Ehrenreich wrote about the dangers of pervasive positive thinking in her book Bright-sided: How positive thinking is undermining America. 

Just as trying to make the best of a bad situation is a reasonable strategy, so is taking a bit of time to think about what could go wrong and taking steps to mitigate it. I wish I could remember where I read this, but I've found that this quote nicely sums up what I see as a role for both positive and cautious approaches to life:

It takes an optimist to invent an airplane, but a pessimist to invent a parachute.