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A comment on The limitations of Steven Pinker’s optimism.

Re:The limitations of Steven Pinker’s optimism by truculation on Monday February 26, 2018 @01:29AM (#16463562)
The review confuses psychological optimism with a problem-based definition of optimism: that problems are solvable (and hence progress is possible).

As David Deutsch points out in The Beginning of Infinity, Winston Churchill was an optimistic leader and a fan of science and progress who nonetheless suffered from depression (the 'black dog') [1].

Whereas Thomas Malthus (mistakenly) predicted mass starvation due to population growth [2] and was therefore a pessimist who nonetheless was of a sunny disposition and the life and soul of dinner parties in London.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10483171-the-beginning-o...

[2] An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) http://www.esp.org/books/malthus/population/malthus.pdf

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Re:The limitations of Steven Pinker’s optimism by olleromam91 on Monday February 26, 2018 @04:58AM (#16464246)
But if a would be problem solver is not psychologically optimistic...what happens to the odds that the problem will be solved?
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Re:The limitations of Steven Pinker’s optimism by joaomacp on Monday February 26, 2018 @08:19AM (#16465024)
They go down. But so do the odds of him being disappointed by failure.
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