Remember, rationality means you see the world as it is, not how you want it to be. Choose optimists - not ones who are unrealistically optimistic. You’ve probably heard the saying that you are the average of the five people you hang around the most. This makes it far easier for me to become a rational optimist than if I would have married another pessimist. My wife is the most optimistic person I’ve ever met. Surround Yourself With Other Rational Optimists. All of this will help prime your mind for optimism. Get enough sleep, expose yourself to sunlight, exercise, eat real food, and avoid cheap dopamine (drugs and alcohol). You can also make optimism your default setting by taking care of yourself. It doesn’t come naturally to me, but I’m getting better. But I use meditation to notice this negative bias, let it go, and then replace it with something positive. I am a pessimist by default (and a very annoying one, at that – just ask my wife!). It used to take a few seconds for me to come up with a positive. Now I always look for the positive side of it. If I catch myself judging somebody, I can stop myself and say, “What’s the positive interpretation of this?” I used to get annoyed about things. After a little while of doing this, it becomes second nature. Then, he actively replaces those thoughts with something positive. He uses self-awareness to interrupt the flow of negative thoughts. You can rewire your brain to become an optimist. You Can Become A Rational Optimist, Even If You’re A Pessimist Now. It will continue to change as I experiment.Īction leads to iteration, which gives you a great chance of finding something that works. I’ve changed the home page, newsletter page, and article page many times to find the right messaging. This leads to iteration – doing the same thing repeatedly with slight variations to find out what works best.įor example, there have been countless iterations of this blog. At least do the first step, and the second step, and the third, and then decide. The easiest way to figure out if something is viable or not is by doing it.
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Then, they learn from trial and error and take the path that has the most promise.Īll the really successful people I know have a very strong action bias. Rational Optimists Have A Bias Towards Action. Becoming a rational optimist solves this.
Smart, pessimistic people, talk themselves out of all sorts of opportunities because they fear a downside that doesn’t exist. Even bankruptcy can be endured and recovered from. Remember, the downside in a first world country is relatively small. Instead, take rationally optimistic bets with big upsides. Stay out of things that could cause you to lose all of your capital, all of your savings. Here’s what Naval says about making bets: The goal is to seek opportunities where you’ll survive even if it doesn’t work out, but you could win BIG if the opportunity does pay off. If it’s a financial bet, it could mean bankruptcy. If it’s something like sky diving, then ruin could mean death. The definition of ruin depends on the circumstance. Rational optimists analyze the downside and assess whether they will avoid ruin if it fails. They convince themselves the risk is too high on all opportunities and usually end up doing nothing. Pessimists often overanalyze the downside. But it’s possible (more on that later).Īsymmetric bets are ones where the upside is unlimited, while the downside is capped. Because we are descendants of pessimists, our default setting is hyper-vigilant anxiety. The chances of getting killed by the natural world are relatively low. If an optimist heard something big rustling in the bushes, they’d assume it was nothing to worry about and continue foraging.Įventually, the optimist would get eaten, while the pessimist survived. If a pessimist heard something big rustling in the bushes, they’d run because they assumed it was a lion or another deadly predator. Naval explains that back when humans were hunters and gatherers on the open plains, it was the pessimist who survived. Start with these, and you’ll be on your way. The two most important models for seeing the world clearly are reciprocation tendency and the power of incentives. I’ve written a lot about mental biases and how difficult it is to see the world as it really is. It takes a ton of work to become rational. And yet you have to be optimistic about your own capabilities, and your capability to get things done. Rational in the sense that you have to see the world for what it really is. To create things, you have to be a rational optimist. If you are optimistic, you’re bringing confidence to your work and are optimistic about your capability to create. If you are rational, you see the world as it is, not how you want it to be.
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