User blog comment:Jeremiah Garland/The Inapposite and Superfluous Philosophical Enigmas of Jeremiah Garland/@comment-3242795-20130606171614/@comment-3112181-20130606174124

Very nicely answered.

I especially find your response to number nine to be quite interesting. Philosophers throughout history have argued it is best to be optimistic, whilst others have said pessimistic. However, I personally believe it is best to be realistic, as Robert touched up on below. You shouldn't look at a given scenario and try to pick out the good in it; but you also shouldn't pick out the bad. You should decipher it for what it is. If one is always optimistic, then even the slightest failure will come across much more dramatic. But, if one is always pessimistic, then the self-fulfilling prophecy comes into play: the socialogical belief that how you act or behave (in this case, negatively) will reflect your outcomes. For example, if you tell yourself you're going to fail a test, you likely will fail it simply because you've determined yourself into doing so. So, in my mind, being optimistic nor pessimistic really does any justice for anybody.

And I can tell you're a Descartesian :P