When It All Goes Wrong Again

by Everclear from Songs From An American Movie

Hello from Kirkland, Washington. If you hadn't guessed by now, I am up here for work. Why that is relates to the major point of this blog entry. And if you hadn't picked up on it by now, it is gonna be one of my trademark rants. So sit back and enjoy the ride. I have been thinking about this for a while and a big part of it results from reading Barbara Ehrenreich's latest and yet unfortunately uneven book, Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. It is basically how Americans have this uniquely and unfortunately mistaken belief that by thinking positively and using positive psychology, we can essentially solve all our problems including career success, fighting illness, being healthy, etc. The really good parts of the book are when Ehrenreich recounts her struggle with breast cancer and encountered all sort of mass positive thinking bullying as if expressing any fear or doubt would somehow diminish your chances of survival. She also recounts how we got here - being that positive thinking and positive psychology were all reactions against the Calvinism prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries. Essentially, her argument is that in the past two decades we have gone from thinking positively as a coping mechanism to encourage determination and perseverance to being a strategy in itself. Ehrenreich points that almost all the respected research on the subject of positive thinking has shown that in itself, won't cure diseases or lead to better health. It certainly doesn't hurt but like almost everything in life, a bunch of other stuff factor in and much of that stuff is involves facing things that hard and require work. But our over indulgence of positive thinking leads us to screw actually doing the work, if we just think positive things will work out. And the evidence is all around from the irrational success of the Secret, the prosperity gospel, the rise in self-help and motivational industry, and many others.

So how does this relate to me being in Kirkland, WA? Well I am up here because I am working on a new product/project. And I am working on a new product/project because well the one I have been working on for the past year or so isn't working out. And the reason why it isn't working out is essentially because the product team is too "bright-sided" and well, I am not. One of my colleagues told me during my first week that our jobs as researchers often means bringing bad news. Now that is not true, but yes, insightful research often finds problems that weren't thought of before. And I pride myself on trying to do insightful, accurate, and meaningful research. The problem with this product team is that don't care for it and well for anything that could possible deflate their bright sided bubble about their baby aka product. My research has uncovered some potentially significant problems and issues that if go unaddressed will result in their baby drowning in the toilet. However, anytime I try to raise any of these, I am met with indifference and retorts which essentially boil down to that they don't expect them to happen because they are only expecting the best case scenario. And any introduction of skepticism, doubt, hell even just differing opinions, ideas, and facts don't factor in believing the best case scenarios. Yes, this was the same product team that refused to let me present some study findings because in their words, it would "raise too many questions." Now this wouldn't be a problem if this team was actually doing the work and doing the diligence to raise the chances of the best case scenario of happening. But they are not, in fact they are cutting corners left and right, basing decisions on their guts rather than evidence, resulting in a disorganized mess. And while some may say that a true dedicated person would put in 150% to right the ship and make a difference, that is not possible with people who are just so entrenched in their own deluded opinions that yeah, why waste the time. I would rather spend my time working with people who want to guard against unforseen circumstances and in fact, seek out those opportunities to do so rather than spending my time screaming at a wall that I am not allowed to punch.

And based off this experience, I can totally see how this only look on the bright side, let's only think about the positive outcome thinking has infected society. The whole Iraq war debacle as told in Imperial Life in the Emerald City, was a giant exercise in solely bright sided thinking. Bush's idiotic war planners didn't plan for things like an insurgency, massive unemployment, infrastructure collapses, and power outages because they didn't figure into their best case scenarios they were deceptively selling the public. And when faced with those problems, they fell back to repeating empty mantras of optimism instead of actually dedicating the resources to solve the problems. Hurricane Katrina is yet another example of this. Even look at our politicians. They feed us bright-sided promises of being able to have everything we want for nothing so we will vote for them. And far too many people believe them and elect and re-elect them over and over again. And guess what happens when the shit hits the fan, they make short-term and short sighted decisions to keep everything bright sided instead of making the tougher, less popular decision that actually deals with reality. Dozens of state governments are facing huge deficits. So guess what - they are slashing education, assistance to the poor, libraries, police, firemen, and tons of really worthy programs so they won't have to "gasp" raise taxes. I mean shit people. You can't have all the services you want and not pay your share for them. But that's a truth no politician or hell even regular person is willing to admit.

I agree with Ehrenreich that all this positive thinking with out actually putting in the work to make the positive happen is really undermining us. I was talking with my sister Jinah about Phill's Bachelor Party and how much fun it was. It also involved more than a fair share of planning. She then recounted how some of the best parties and events with her friends were exactly like that. Very fun and entertaining yet involved a fuck load of planning and work to pull off. And it frustrates both me and Jinah that some people don't appreciate that. These are the same people who don't bother to put in the work and planning and just hope or think for the best that things will work out. And more often than not, the things those people organize turn out to be shit or get derailed when one small thing just destroys their best case scenario. I worked on something a few years ago that I just knew was going to be a disaster. Essentially something that was bolted onto something else for the sake of speed and well, not wanting to put the required amount of work. All the research I did said so and I warned them that we might just to redo the thing from scratch anyway. But the bright sided product managers (they suffer from this syndrome way too much) said don't worry, let's not address your issues and hope for the best case. Well the best case didn't happen and guess what, they have to redo the whole thing from scratch. And while it is nice to be vindicated in this case, I don't really derive much joy out of it. That's not to say I don't get some joy out of it (hell I am only human) but what bothers me is the waste of it all. The wasted time, money and effort gone into repairing all the problems that these bright minded people created by insisting only good things can happen rather than planning and working in reality.

Many (and I do mean many) people have called me a pessimist in my life. I usually don't bother to respond to them because many of them believe the definition of a pessimist is anyone who even mentions one iota of skepticism or doubt. I would counter that I am a realist. At times, I am optimistic and I think positively, as much some people may say that I don't. If I didn't I wouldn't be setting goals nor accomplished the things I have already without being somewhat optimistic that I could do them. But being optimistic or thinking positive can't be the only thing - which I feel too many people believe these days. To get the job I have now, yes required thinking positive but also involved years of education and work, including countless hours spent in class, reading, studying, working on projects, going to lectures, interviews, presentations, etc. Yes I want to finish a marathon in under 4 hours but thinking positively won't get me there alone. I need to spend the many many hours training to get there and you know what, the many hours of training mean a hell of out more to reaching the goal and than being super optimistic about it. Optimism can take you only so far and in fact too much optimism can take you the wrong way. So yeah there is nothing wrong with looking on the bright side of life, just don't forget that is can't be sunny all the time no matter how much you want it to be.

So that is enough of my rant for tonight. I have a bunch of traveling in store for me. After this trip, I will be heading to Atlanta for CHI and then to New York a few weeks later. So until next time, peace.