> The costs of negativity and discouragement are difficult to judge because they usually take the form of opportunity costs which aren't directly visible.

That has nothing to do with anything I have said. You have unfairly added an assumption to my comment and asserted I said something I did not. Saying that going too far on one side of an activity is bad does not imply that the other side is better. You have basically said because I don't think running 50 miles a day is healthy that I am advocating sloth.

> "Unwarranted positivity" has also been the root cause of many of our industry's greatest successes.

Our industries greatest successes have come from a place of optimism but been realistic in their thinking. Most programmers have suffered from people, including themselves, giving estimates that were "Unwarranted positivity".

Just a reminder that this subthread is litigating the value of unwarranted and insubstantial negativity.

Yes, which I believe has been demonstrated on one of my comments by stating a position that I did not take. I can think of no worse source of the two things you mention than forcing a position on someone who didn't take it.