The Desire for Optimism

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Desire for Optimism

I think it's time to be more optimistic about this world. I have so little influence in what happens in this world, but I can choose how to direct it.

The News. 

My head is full of it. I am strangely addicted to it. I have to know. I have to know what else is going on. What do people think about these events. What will happen next?

And yet, for all that. I'm left with this terrible taste in my mouth after I ingest the news. There is so much pain/idiocy/hatred/selfishness - you name it. The world is full of it. No, I take that back. People are full of it. When there is a natural disaster I am sad for it, but it does not pain me the way a human disaster does. And these days even our natural disasters are beginning to become human disasters. 

Must Move On...

I started this post desiring optimism. I have to move on from the pessimism or it will consume the entire page. When considering the news I am forced to realize that the nature of news is that the focus will be (and must be) on the negative. It's the human condition to want to hear about someone else's tragedy. Hearing about someone having a good day gets old real quick. 

But that doesn't mean there aren't captivating reasons for optimism in this world. For all that human nature can contribute to the worst this world has to offer; it can also inspire/create/strive. And if all that fails, there's always puppy pictures:

In No Particular Order

As an exercise in optimism here are seven things that make me optimistic:

  • Project Loon - Let's make this a placeholder for all the ambitious things Google is doing. I'm incredibly proud of the place I work for. It's mission is to organize the world's information and make it more accessible. How much better will this world be as we have more and more information available to us?
  • Tesla and Elon Musk - Here we have a company and an individual driven (no pun intended) to improve the world. Energy is our largest challenge to climate change. And he is fighting that fight like no one else in the world right now.
  •  This is the first family. Political preference aside - we as a country have voted (twice) to elect a black man our president. We have a long way to go, but we have made great strides.
  •  This guy. He amazes me every day. And I have to believe he will be better than me. 
  • Same-sex_marriage_gif
    • Here we have a civil rights issue and we can see how quickly it can change. When there's no money standing against something we tend to see change happen a lot quicker.
  • Ray Kurzweil - one of the most intelligent (and more importantly accurate) futurists of our time. And strangely - he's optimistic about most things. He sees the world differently and understands how technology will continue to advance at exponential rates. For more info see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_nOddk01E&index=5&list=WL
  • Perspective - if you take away the hyperbolic media people are pretty rational. We are fed some crazy stuff by people who make money by whipping us into a frenzy. That makes sense to me. But when you actually talk to people and get away from the buzzwords they tend to have common desires and thoughts.



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