An old story to differentiate between an optimist and a pessimist… a glass with some water is given to two people. The person who says the glass is half empty is a pessimist and the guy who says it is half filled is an optimist. Is this a kind of joke? How can be anybody branded as an optimist or for that matter a pessimist by asking a question?
This has been observed and followed by many people since ages. Some companies still put these things in their process of selection for a job. Can anyone say that Stefan Banic, the person who invented parachute is a pessimist? Who was the person who got the thought to take data backup? The business continuity plans, the disaster recovery process and the list goes on which requires a negative thought.
The above situations and examples prove that the so called pessimist is instrumental in revolutionizing many systems and processes across the world. Are these people not optimistic? Yes they are but they also know how to think out of the box and to foresee a problem. I don’t say being optimistic is bad but at the same time an individual has to think pessimistically also
People say that an optimist is required for the development of the society, optimists make a better world and blah blah... True but is optimism a core quality of a person or is it guided by the situation?
I say it is guided by the situation. The person who said the glass was half empty would have been in a bad situation where there was no water except for that half glass and he/she has to quench the thirst of so many people. It is pretty obvious that the situation is guiding the person to say something like that. It is utterly foolish to say the glass is half full in this situation and be happy rather than realizing the ground realities and acting pragmatically.
If the quality of optimism or pessimism is dependent on a particular situation, then why brand a person optimist or pessimist? Every person is a mix of both and that is what is required for balanced and happy living. Right??
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Optipessimism
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
ifs and buts of insanity
The difference between insanity and genius is measured only through success, a famous dialogue delivered by the villain Elliot carver in the James bond flick Tomorrow Never Dies. This happens when Mr. Bond proclaim that the villain is insane. Then follows a series of events where the villain is almost successful in his mission which is ultimately destroyed by our Bond strictly adhering to the movie formula “good triumphs over evil”
Unlike in the reel life, there are no almosts in real life and unfortunately success takes only binary values (0or 1). Often we come across people who are a little bit aberrant from the normal folks and we label them as eccentrics. The causes for this kind of behavior galore but I don’t want to dig in them. These people are treated as “who thoda paagal hai yaar uski baton mein mat aao” but why? Galileo for instance was considered as blasphemous and lunatic when he said “the earth is not flat but it is in oval shape” the Old Testament hero “Moses” was thrown out of the country and even the greatest scientist of our times Albert Einstein was not spared for the same reason
What’s wrong with these guys... they proposed something new which is not at all acceptable by the majority. Fortunately in later stages the variable “success” took a value “1” and the program was executed without any error and the application is running smoothly for the above mentioned guys but what about the rest?. Thomas Alva Edison once said he knows 100 different ways how one should not make an electric bulb coz he failed 100 times before making one. what if he is not successful even after that…
Edison could have definitely succeeded coz he had the right kind of passion for doing that. Eccentricity in sheer magnitude is not enough to make the success variable =”1” but it should be combined with loads of passion and positive direction.
A person cut his tongue for his favorite politician unbelievable but true. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 in NYC and 26/11 in Mumbai are perfect examples of some kind of fanaticism. Nevertheless if this kind of passion is put in the right direction it works wonders. It’s not as simple as it sounds but definitely not difficult .Its like a Fleming’s left hand rule but in here the three axes should not be perpendicular but they should overlap. (Passion, right direction and eccentricity)
So in a nutshell it is better to help out the weirdoes around us by giving them the direction rather than ignoring. Who knows they may do some good to us as well as the entire society. what say???
Unlike in the reel life, there are no almosts in real life and unfortunately success takes only binary values (0or 1). Often we come across people who are a little bit aberrant from the normal folks and we label them as eccentrics. The causes for this kind of behavior galore but I don’t want to dig in them. These people are treated as “who thoda paagal hai yaar uski baton mein mat aao” but why? Galileo for instance was considered as blasphemous and lunatic when he said “the earth is not flat but it is in oval shape” the Old Testament hero “Moses” was thrown out of the country and even the greatest scientist of our times Albert Einstein was not spared for the same reason
What’s wrong with these guys... they proposed something new which is not at all acceptable by the majority. Fortunately in later stages the variable “success” took a value “1” and the program was executed without any error and the application is running smoothly for the above mentioned guys but what about the rest?. Thomas Alva Edison once said he knows 100 different ways how one should not make an electric bulb coz he failed 100 times before making one. what if he is not successful even after that…
Edison could have definitely succeeded coz he had the right kind of passion for doing that. Eccentricity in sheer magnitude is not enough to make the success variable =”1” but it should be combined with loads of passion and positive direction.
A person cut his tongue for his favorite politician unbelievable but true. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 in NYC and 26/11 in Mumbai are perfect examples of some kind of fanaticism. Nevertheless if this kind of passion is put in the right direction it works wonders. It’s not as simple as it sounds but definitely not difficult .Its like a Fleming’s left hand rule but in here the three axes should not be perpendicular but they should overlap. (Passion, right direction and eccentricity)
So in a nutshell it is better to help out the weirdoes around us by giving them the direction rather than ignoring. Who knows they may do some good to us as well as the entire society. what say???
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