Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Knee-jerk Pessimism

Over the years, I have unintentionally cultivated something that might best be described as "knee-jerk pessimism." This is a kind of reflexive devil's advocacy. It manifests itself as an immediate, negative initial reaction to suggestions or ideas, followed by a period of mulling things over. The final stage is either eventual acceptance (and possibly even excitement) for the idea, or a hardening of the opposition.

For minor things, the entire process can be so short-lived that the other party in the conversation never even notices that there was an initial internal protest. (You: What if we did X?; Me: (Internal) Do X?! That isn't the way to go....hey, that's actually a good idea (External) Sure.) For more substantive things, my hesitation tends to be more obvious, i.e., "cautious optimism" without the optimism.

Though obviously self-serving, it is my belief that it is healthy to have at least one person on a team who can act as a foil to the unbridled enthusiasm of others. (You probably don't want more than one, however.) If you are about to have surgery, for example, wouldn't you feel better if at least one person in the operating room actively thinking about what could go wrong?

No comments: