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Re:Opt Out of Cynicism by yholio on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @05:41AM (#29550260)
Cynical people don't found unicorn startups, don't win marathons and seldom the Nobel prize. On the other hand, not being cynical increases your chance to achieve such goals by 0.00001%, while your chance to end up a broke hobo, a beat down athlete or a 50 y/o teaching assistant waiting for tenure shoot up exponentially.

All in all, cynicism sounds (to a cynic) like a pretty good adaptation strategy to the real world.

Re:Opt Out of Cynicism by mycowerk on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @05:52AM (#29550316)
I'd argue the optimum strategy requires you be at least a little optimistic.

Humans are biased to outweigh the importance of losses vs gains when considering expected value. At a minimum a some optimism is required to offset this bias.