How about Optimism and Trust vs. Pessimism and Mistrust?

First, some quotes:

Progress happens when people learn something new. And they learn the most, as a group, when stuff breaks and gets painful.

So the reasonable optimist expects the world to break all the time. But they know – as a matter of faith – that if they can survive the day-to-day fractures they’ll capture the up-and-to-the-right arc over time.

(via The Reasonable Optimist · Collaborative Fund)

Seeing a situation from all angles is always preferable, adds Laslett, saying: “Any strength overplayed becomes a weakness: that is to say, blind optimism is never good.”

But a little optimism does go a long way.

(via How ‘optimism bias’ shapes our decisions and futures – BBC Worklife)

All good investing comes down to surviving an inevitable chain of short-term setbacks and disappointments in order to enjoy long-term progress and compounding.

Save like a pessimist, investing like an optimist.

(via Save Like A Pessimist, Invest Like An Optimist · Collaborative Fund)

But introverts have unique personality traits that can empower them to be exceptional leaders if properly leveraged.

(via Why introverts can be better leaders than extroverts)

There’s a quote by Gala Galaction (a writer/priest) I like a lot (from “Lângă apa Vodislavei”):

Turcul se învoi ușor cu toți, până la Iordache, crezu fiecăruia și primi și mai jos decât ceruse.

(Adapted translation – The Turk easily agreed with everyone, up to Iordache, believed everyone’s story and accepted to receive even smaller amounts of money than he asked.)

(This last quote shows pity, in my opinion.)

A quote by Nicolae Steinhardt:

Se cuvine să înțelegem că orice am face și oricât ne-am strădui, tot supărăm. Singura soluție e resemnarea. Ce putem face? Să tăcem, să tăcem. Să nu facem răul, și nici binele cu sila. Dar și trecând, tăcând, tot nemulțumim. Odată pentru totdeauna se cade să ne băgăm bine în minte: deranjăm doar pentru că suntem prezenți. Și să nu ne oprim aici: mai trebuie să recunoaștem că și ei ne deranjează pe noi! Gând înfiorător: Căci nu suntem mai buni ca ceilalți, tot în aceeași oală ne aflăm și fierbem înăbușit.

(Adapted translation – We should understand that no matter what we do and no matter how hard we try, we are still upsetting others. The only solution is resignation. What can we do? Let’s shut up, let’s shut up. Let us not do evil, nor do good by force. But even by our passing, silent, we are still upsetting others. Once and for all, it is important to keep in mind: we bother even because we are present. And let’s not stop here: we must also admit that others bother us too! Creepy thought: Because we are not better than the others, we are in the same boiling pot and we are also boiling and suffocating.)

Now, let’s get down to business.

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These days, there’s a lot of buzz in the media about a politician in Romania, which used to be prime minister, now offered a “warm job” – a well-paid position for which, the media says, that person might not be the most suited candidate. I won’t link to any news on that, I would do the Internet a bad service.

The news is mostly that:

• “If I were the person naming X in that position, I would have chosen a better candidate”.
• “I’m a much better person than X, I deserve even better than X in life”.
• “Political party Y, now in power in Romania, is not that trustworthy”.
• “In Romania, things go wrong”.

While I would understand most people’s reactions for feeling disappointed by a political party, now governing, I think most of the reactions in the media (in various forms) were due to two main reasons:

• “I’m better than the person naming X, why am I not in that person’s shoes?”.
• “I’m better than X, why don’t I get a good position?”.

To me, the things above are not the real news. To me, the real news is that society (in which you, the reader are included) is so preoccupied with this issue that this is even news.

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