samuraiprosecutor: (I feel a headache coming on)
samuraiprosecutor ([personal profile] samuraiprosecutor) wrote in [personal profile] attorneyatlol 2009-03-30 07:19 pm (UTC)

(Damn this)

[Locked]

(Given said outcomes, I should think that was enough.) Point. Perhaps you viewed certain events in a more...optimistic light than I would have been capable of.

That wasn't meant as I'm sure it was taken. I'm not so foolish as to be able to believe lowered expectations can save one from disappointments.

Surprise, however, is another matter. An optimist truly believes the outcome will be favorable, despite all evidence to the contrary, and so is surprised when the best doesn't come to pass, just as a pessimist is genuinely surprised when their worst fears aren't confirmed. Realism isn't emotional neutrality, but an absence of such preset assumptions, a belief that any plausible outcome may come to pass.

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