optimism

Maybe it's my extra strong pot of coffee, or my new secret million dollar business plan, but I may be actually developing an optimistic view about the future.

Not my future specifically, but The Future.

I don't think I've felt this since... I can't even remember.

I think TED talks are a very big factor here. Let me explain.

News preaches Doom and Gloom every day. News, for me and many others, is the primary window to the Rest of the World. Without it, you only see your tiny, 0.00000001% corner of the world.

But with news you can see so much more! Maybe, if you read lots of News, you can see up to 1% of the world!

But the stuff you read about in the News is usually Bad and Depressing. So maybe you read other News, which is also Bad and Depressing. Eventually you start to feel Bad and Depressed. You forget that you're only seeing 1% of the picture.

TED Talks are sort of like the News. You still see only a small part of the whole picture. But the people who talk aren't Depressing at all. They're actually Smart and Hopeful. They are trying to solve some of the big problems out there. And many are succeeding at it!

If you watch enough of them, you might even start to feel Hopeful too.