This is a work in progress as of 11/01/25

**Things are not looking good.**

But we don’t have the luxury of pessimism. We have a moral obligation to ancestors, contemporaries, and descendants, to fight for a better world. Staying optimistic, however, is not effortless. It requires intentional, proactive work. Here are some of the practices that I follow to keep my optimism sharp.

Pessimism is pointless

I can’t think of a single benefit of pessimism. Pessimism is inherently harmful. “But you can’t be optimistic and think positive 24/7”. No shit, nobody is asserting that you should only think happy thoughts. You can be grounded in reality while understanding that pessimism serves no benefit.

Stay Productive

Bezos has a quote that’s loosely summarized as “stress is the result of not taking action”. I witnessed this first hand when a friend was dooming about the rise of fascism in America, until they started volunteering with a local political campaign. Productivity restores a sense of control and builds positive feedback loops.

Studying history + futurism gives me a macro understanding of time that enables a feeling of “this too shall pass”

Humanity has been through worse. We are extremely resilient.

Curating feeds and IRL social networks accordingly

I consume a dozen different news feeds everyday. I am strict about managing the content that appears in those feeds. For example, I follow a lot of founders, creators, and optimism-specific channels. I can even enjoy following the content of haters and critics, but I try to limit it to the ones who are productive about it.

I am intentional about who I spend time with. People are the average of the people that they spend the most time around. I don’t want to spend time around doomers, complainers, and nihilists. We all have a moral obligation to lead, follow, or get out of the way. People who refuse to do any of the three are harmful. This does not have to make relationships into transactional formulas that measure people’s optimism levels. You can still have empathy and care for pessimists, but not at the expense of your own optimism.

Lastly, no dooming before bed.