In this video Tim Ferris explain his concept of “Practical Pessimism”. He covers this idea in his book “The 4-hour Work Week“, but this is great introduction.
It is interesting to note that Ferriss is of Danish extraction, and the concept of “Practical Pessimism” is apparently the key to why the Danes are apparently the happiest people in the world.
This is from the recent brilliant article in The Atlantic on the famous Grant Study, “What Makes Us Happy?” by Joshua Wolfshenk
For 30 years, Denmark has topped international happiness surveys. But Danes are hardly a sanguine bunch. Ask an American how it’s going, and you will usually hear “Really good.” Ask a Dane, and you will hear “Det kunne være værre (It could be worse).” “Danes have consistently low (and indubitably realistic) expectations for the year to come,” a team of Danish scholars concluded. “Year after year they are pleasantly surprised to find that not everything is getting more rotten in the state of Denmark.”
It seems that the whole positive thinking junket is under fire these days, with a new article in the Economist (“Positive thinking’s negative results“) showing that “for some people, optimistic thoughts can do more harm than good”.
Anyway, here is the video:
YouTube – Tim Ferriss – Google IO Ignite – Practical Pessimism
See also:
The Consolations of Pessimism by Alan De Botton
