Progress

This is an entertaining talk by Robert Wright looking at the general trajectory of the world in a hopefully positive cynically despondent way.



I am busy reading 'Authentic Happiness' by Martin Seligman. He is one of the founders of 'positive psychology' or a branch of cognitive psychology that looks at how to make 'healthy' people happier instead of making depressed people less sick. Paul Bloom talks about how many motivational speakers and 'self help authors' cotton on to this as a means of giving gobbledy gook the pretence of science... but there are some people who do actually look at these things in a dispassionate scientific way.

Like Wright's look at the progress of the world, I think it is useful to try and apply a cynical questioning mind to things in a way that can have a positive outcome.

When I see mentions of techniques of positive thinking in Seligman's book like 'ABCDE' technique to handle negative feedback, and the 'REACH' technique to let go of past heartache... something inside of me cringes. Anything with an acronym brings out the cynic in me. But when you get past that, there is some really practical and 'cynically optimistic'.

We'll see.

Exciting Times.