An optimist believes the glass is half-full.

A pessimist believes the glass is half-empty.

A realist believes the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Who do you think has a more accurate view of the world, optimists or pessimists?

Yep, it’s pessimists. 

By and large, pessimists have a more realistic and accurate worldview than rosey-eyed optimists. The world is harsh, unpredictable, and often unkind, which is precisely the sort of description you’d expect from a pessimist. And there are certainly benefits to having an accurate worldview.

The money question is: Is it better to be accurate or ignorant?

Red pill or blue pill?

In the era-defining sci-fi film The Matrix, Morpheous famously offers Neo a choice between the blue pill and the red pill.

“If you take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: All I’m offering is the truth, nothing more.”

Neo takes the red pill, discovers the horrible truth that the world he knows is nothing more than a computer simulation designed by A.I. to keep people alive while they are used as batteries, and the real world is a gritty, dangerous, nightmare.

The filmmakers present Neo’s choice as honorable, while later in the film his crewmate Cypher is presented as morally reprehensible for asking the machines to plug him back in to The Matrix and wipe his memory of the real world, so he can live out his life in blissful ignorance. 

I mean, he also slaughters his friends, which makes it easier to hate him as a character. And I suspect that’s precisely why the filmmakers gave him the “friend-murderer” plot point: 

If Cypher was just a good person asking to forget the horrors of the real world and go back to being blissfully unaware, and generally happy, it wouldn’t be hard to see his perspective.

Pessimism doesn’t work

While pessimists generally have a more accurate worldview, you may have guessed by now that optimists are more likely to be successful.

Optimists believe the world is generally a positive place where amazing things can happen, and everything tend to work out for the best. That may not be true, but if you believe that, you are more likely to take risks, meet new people, and pursue interesting opportunities.

Where a pessimist would say, “Don’t even bother, you’re never going to be that promotion,” an optimist thinks, “I bet I can get that promotion.” Optimists are often wrong, but because they continually take leaps of faith, things occasionally work out in their favor.

And any statistics major will tell you that one out of a hundred is a whole lot better than zero for zero. In fact, it’s infinitely better. Optimists fail way more often than pessimists, and that’s precisely why they succeed.

I would argue Cypher is more likely to lead a successful, meaningful life if he believes that the world is largely a good place full of interesting opportunities.

You know, except for the friend-murdering.

BONUS: Realism vs Pessimism

Realists know that this too will pass; Pessimists throw in the towel. 

Here’s an excellent article on the subtle but important differences between realism and pessimism: https://www.bolde.com/fine-line-between-realism-pessimism/