The Power of Negative Thinking

[MachineGhost]

Fortunately, both ancient philosophy and contemporary psychology point to an alternative: a counterintuitive approach that might be termed "the negative path to happiness." This approach helps to explain some puzzles, such as the fact that citizens of more economically insecure countries often report greater happiness than citizens of wealthier ones. Or that many successful businesspeople reject the idea of setting firm goals.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 37790.html

[Gosso]

Sounds similar to Seneca, who thought we should lower our expectations and assume things will not go our way.  This means we won't be stressed or angry when things do screw up, and be far happier when things do go well.  It is important to not let this way of thinking depress you or prevent you from engaging in the environment, but simply as a way to be mentally prepared for negative events.

I realize this flies in the face of the way we are told to think, but it makes some sense.

Here's a YouTube video from Alain de Botton on Seneca (24 minutes): http://youtu.be/yuDAfU3uj6o

BTW, the entire six part series "A Guide to Happiness" by Alain de Botton is quite good.

[Gosso]

Douglas Coupland: A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years:

2) The future isn't going to feel futuristic.  It's simply going to feel weird and out-of-control-ish, the way it does now, because too many things are changing too quickly. The reason the future feels odd is because of its unpredictability. If the future didn't feel weirdly unexpected, then something would be wrong.

17) You may well burn out on the effort of being an individual.  You've become a notch in the Internet's belt. Don't try to delude yourself that you're a romantic lone individual. To the new order, you're just a node. There is no escape.

24) It is going to become much easier to explain why you are the way you are.  Much of what we now consider "personality" will be explained away as structural and chemical functions of the brain.

28) It will become harder to view your life as "a story".  The way we define our sense of self will continue to morph via new ways of socializing. The notion of your life needing to be a story will seem slightly corny and dated. Your life becomes however many friends you have online.

35) Stupid people will be in charge, only to be replaced by ever-stupider people. You will live in a world without kings, only princes in whom our faith is shattered.

39) IKEA will become an ever-more-spiritual sanctuary.

42) You'll spend a lot of time shopping online from your jail cell.  Over-criminalization of the populace, paired with the triumph of shopping as a dominant cultural activity, will create a world where the two poles of society are shopping and jail.

45) We will accept the obvious truth that we brought this upon ourselves.

How is that for pessimism.

[MediumTex]

Harry Browne touched on the need for negative thinking in his "Rule Your World" audio course.

He called himself a negative thinker.  He said it was important to be a negative thinker because it is very hard otherwise to be realistic about the scope of risks and dangers in the world.