Optimistic, Pessimist, Realist

[JENNR8R 0]

Optimistic: disposed to take a favorable view of things and to anticipate favorable results

Pessimist: a person who habitually sees or anticipates the worst or is disposed to be gloomy

Realist: a person who tends to view or represent things as they really are

Tonight an optimist told me that I'm pessimistic. I believe that I'm a realist. In fact a personality profile said that I'm "the anchor of reality" in highly emotional situations, and I bring things back to earth when too much dreaming is going on.

What are you?

What do you call a beautiful, sunny day that comes after two cloudy, rainy
ones? -- Monday.

[lawrocket 3]

Murphy was an optimist.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[AggieDave 6]

Quote

Murphy was an optimist.

That would be a good t-shirt or bumper sticker.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[SpeedRacer 1]

I didn't answer this poll. because Pessimists always believe that they are really REALISTS compared to the optimists.

Even though in real life, the optimists are actually more realistic.

If you don't believe me, think of the predictions that most people had about the future back in the 1960s and 1970s. Was it "realistic" to believe that the Cold War would end without a bang?

Was it "realistic" to believe that we wouldn't have run out of oil by the year 2000, or polluted ourselves to death, or run out of fuel or food, or the REVOLUTION wouldn't have destroyed us all???

FUCK no. Only some la-de-da "unrealistic" optimist would believe that the human race would somehow muddle through it all.

ANYONE who was being REALISTIC would clearly see that we would have destroyed ourselves.

to quote a song from that time :

"And you tell me, over and over again, my friend, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction!"

Speed Racer
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[SpeedRacer 1]

In addition, it tends to be optimists that make positve changes in the world (crazy inventors & visionaries who are too "dumb" to realize they'll never amount to anything, so they therefore succeed out of shear audacity)

wheras the realistic pessimists understand that it's all bullshit & it won't work, you can't make a difference, and so they don't.

so anyway, what's the difference between a pessimist and a realist in image, and what's the difference between an optimist and a realist in reality??

Speed Racer
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[lawrocket 3]

A realist understands that, indeed, you will fail on occasion. This is a pessimistic thought. The optimist thinks you will succeed if you keep on trying. Well, you won't always succeed.

I'll put it in a different line of thought, expanding on an above post:
1) Optimist - there will be no nuclear war, so why worry?
2) Pessimist - there will a nuclear war, so just accept it.
3) Realist - there probably WILL be a nuclear war unless something is done to stop it.

I hope that expounds a bit on how I see them.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[SpeedRacer 1]

which still doesn't explain why that man has tits.


ooops, sorry, wrong thread!

Speed Racer
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[Mike111 0]

A realist, who likes to be optimistic when possible, especially if a result of something is undecided and could evenly go either way.

[Peej 0]

I'm an eternal optimist

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

[popsjumper 2]

Realistically, I'm optomistic that the world going to hell in a handbasket and that I'll be holding the door for you when you get there.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[kbordson 8]

Optimist in my life and personal views.

But, when it comes to work and other peoples lives, I try to plan for worst possible case events. My thougths are that if I acknowledge that bad things can and do happen and I plan for them, then the fates will be nice and I won't have to do them.

My views: Life is good. Sometimes bad things happen to good people... but maybe we just don't understand how it might be really a good thing.

Everyone has probably heard this story or even recieved it as a chain email... but

Someone sent me a story recently, author unknown, which continues this theme.
Two angels were traveling in the countryside. They stopped one night at the home of a wealthy farmer. However, he was greedy and unkind. They asked for a place to sleep and he offered them the basement. In the basement, the older angel noticed a hole in the wall and fixed it.
The next night they came to the home of a poor farmer and asked for lodging. That farmer was very giving and offered the main bedroom of the home. In the morning, the angels awakened to find the farmer and his wife weeping. Their milk cow, their only source of income, had died.
The younger angel questioned the older one. "Why, when we stayed in the home of the rich farmer, did you fix the hole in the wall? Then, last night, when we stayed with the poor farmer, you allowed his only cow to die?"
The older angel said, "Things are not always what they seem. In the basement of the rich but greedy farmer, I saw gold in the wall. I covered it up so he wouldn't get it. Last night, when we stayed with the poor farmer, the Angel of Death came for his wife. I gave him their cow. Things are not always what they seem."

[JustChuteMeNow 0]

The pessimist says: It can't get any worse

The optimist says: Oh yes it can

Think of how stupid the average person is and realize that statistically half of them are stupider than that.

[PLFXpert 0]

Oy vey. I have no idea.

My whole life my father always accusingly called me an idealist.

Now that I'm older I think I've become more of a realist with optimistic/pessimistic tendencies.

Edit: I do always say, though, "Your/My glass is half-full..."

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[JerryBaumchen 1,454]

Hi JENNR8R,

Re: Your poll

If you are not an optimist, then just why are you jumping out of airplanes?

Jerry

[cocheese 0]

I'm a realist that really opposes reality.