Tag Archives: personality

A Practical Observation on the Risks of Stupidity

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“I divide my officers into four classes; the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Each officer possesses at least two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy however is for the very highest command; he has the temperament and nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious is a menace and must be removed immediately!”
– German General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, Truppenführung

Zoe is an Observer

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Zoe on the Big Slide - part 2

If we take Zoe to the park for a half-hour, she will spend 20 minutes of that time watching what all the other kids are doing. It’s not that she’s shy, really. She loves other kids, and will happily play with them — once she’s watched them for a bit.

This particular photo was taken after she triumphantly climbed to the top of the slide. She had grabbed my hand and dragged me clear across the park to go down this particular slide. Once we got there, a bunch of older boys were playing on the slide. The boys were being polite, and would have let Zoe climb up to take a turn, but despite my encouragement, she wouldn’t budge from my side. She wouldn’t leave, either. In the end, she stood there watching the boys play, and waited over ten minutes for them to clear off the slide, and then after they left, she happily took over.

I'm an Optimist

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there are many reasons why I consider myself an optimist, but I never really thought much about it until Annie announced that she thinks I am a pessimist.

She talked to me about it and explained that she was basing that on the way I reacted to certain things, and specifically, my frequent announcements (only partly facetious) that I hate everyone and everything.

I disagree with her. I think being an optimist or a pessimist has very little to do with how well you react to certain situations or whether you hold the rest of mankind in contempt.

It has to do with the way you react to things as a whole. While bad things do happen to me, on the whole, I am confident that in the end, things will work out (if not for the best, then the way they needed to be).

When I watch the news, I see bad things happening, and think “that’s sad,” and I move on. I think about other things and I remain confident that things will work out.

Annie watches the news and comes away with her faith in mankind shaken. I’ll listen to her mutter for hours about the environment, or war, or just unfortunate things. She worries about them happening to her and she stresses about them happening to other people. Her faith in many things, both religious and secular is easily shaken.

To me, that’s pessimism. Because I don’t react that way. I don’t get bogged down in it, because while it’s true that bad things are happening, and could happen to you, you need to do what you can with what you’ve got, and do your best to improve your lot in life. And I remain ever hopeful that I can improve, and so can the world.

There are those (and while Annie has never said so, I think she might think of me this way) who view this as turning a blind eye to the world’s problems. I don’t have a good response to that. I just don’t feel that’s what I’m doing. I don’t think I can solve all the world’s problems, but I also don’t feel a huge pressure to do so.

So sure, I get mad at bad drivers, and I don’t like shallow inconsiderate people, but when it comes to the larger issues, I consider myself optimistic.