This thought just occurred to me recently. Traditionally, we say an optimist sees the glass as half-full while a pessimist sees the glass as half-empty. I think we’ve got it backwards.

A pessimist sees the glass as half-full. The pessimist thinks, “Well, it could be WORSE” because that’s what a pessimist naturally expects. A half-full glass is better than nothing, and a pessimist, who naturally expects the worst, can be satisfied with a half-full glass.

The optimist, on the other hand, sees the glass as half-empty because the optimist thinks, “Well, it could be BETTER.” The optimist is filled with hope—as opposed to being resigned to its miserable fate. The optimist expects better and strives to make things better because the optimist believes that “better” is possible whereas the pessimist has little faith that things can be better and comforts itself with the knowledge that things could be worse.

Just an aside.

-Laelth