The Pessimism Age Is Exhausting Us

How much longer can we live as cavemen

We’re back to cavemen times.

If you spend enough time on social media, you’ll start to believe the sky is falling in. I’m not blaming anyone. It’s been a tough couple of years.

Life has become that scary film “Contagion” times a hundred.

Naughty Bill Gates was right when he gave that Ted Talk on viruses years ago. The drama is a long way from over. At some point, the financial consequences will hit the global stock markets.

Back in cavemen days our negativity bias kept us alive. It stopped us getting our butt bitten by a Sabertooth tiger out for a morning walk.

In modern times, the pessimism age we’ve drifted mindlessly into isn’t doing us any good. It’s turning us against each other. The divide is getting bigger.

I get why we’re here. But how much longer can we live like this?

Pessimism is a drainer

The problems are easy to spot. There’s no effort needed to lose patience and blow up at every little thing.

It takes zero skill to leave a nasty comment or play critic on the internet. Toddlers play this game when they don’t get what they want. Now we’re following their example.

Pessimism is everywhere.

I ran a workshop recently for writers. A question came up: “How can I get lots of people to read my writing?”

Answer: Write about how the world is ending.

Lean into negativity. Light the dystopian category of content on fire with outrageous headlines and quotes that exploit our negativity bias.

We’re so numb to pessimism. It’s everywhere. It brings out all the Captain Stupids who explain every problem with “we’re all going to hell” and “I told you so morons.”

Great mate. Real helpful.

The news hasn’t helped. Fox and The Crisis News Network (CNN) have got more desperate for clicks that earn them money. They’ve financialised our pessimism as a way to save their dying businesses.

Rage-bait gets dished out every hour — 24/7. No wonder we’re going mad.

To solve the problems pessimists raise, we’ve gotta kick the doors down

Pessimists sound smart, optimists solve hard problems.

There’s a gapping big difference.

Sahil Bloom says pessimists see the doors that are closed. Optimists see the doors that are open. He goes on to say that optimists kick down the doors that are closed.

They find a way, hell or high water. There’s no giving up. There’s no letting the dystopian narrative win.

That’s how we move past the hard times we’ve found ourselves in.

Standing in the middle of floodwaters and screaming the world is screwed will only guarantee you get swept away into the drain.

The best times in history are upon us (solution)

Pessimists fear change.

That’s what it boils down to. They can’t see that human ingenuity can solve many of the things they say are unsolvable. Recently, I found one potential solution to the pessimism age we’re in.

Check out Peter Diamandis.

He’s a diamond in a sea of rockhead pessimists. An interview with him resuscitated my optimism. It’ll do the same for you.

Who is this giant weirdo

Peter’s most famous achievement is founding the X-Prize.

The board consists of some of the smartest minds around — James Cameron, Larry Page, Arianna Huffington, and Ratan Tata

Peter decided rather than seeing huge human problems through the lens of pessimism, he could steal an idea from 1919. Back then Raymond Orteig created the Orteig prize.

The idea was people would be motivated to solve problems if they had the chance to earn money.

He offered a $25,000 prize to whatever team could make the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris a reality. Charles Lindbergh made it happen and took home the cash.

Since the launch of the X-Prize Peter Diamandis has given away a lot of money.

• In 2004 one winner got $10M for pushing the limits of space flight. While $10M got given away, participants invested more than $100M. This X-Prize gave rise to the space race we have today between Jeff Bezos, Elon Musketeer, and Richard Branson.
• Between 2010–2011 $1M was handed out to the team that could solve the problem of accidental oil spills in the sea.
• Between 2016–2018 a challenge was issued to help increase women’s safety with a wearable device. Leaf Wearables won and got the $1M prize.

Apart from space travel, Peter has what he calls a 6-pack of medical degrees. This has led him to invest and play a big part in life extension technology. He says we’re not far away from adding 10–30 healthy years to a person’s life.

His mission is to make 100 years old the new 50.

Peter also started a space university, a rocket company, a satellite communication company, and a $500M venture fund. He wrote a few New York Times Best Selling books, too.

This will end the pessimism age

The pessimism age is coming to an end. Why?

Peter says the Exponential Age is here and about to take over. It led him to meet Ray Kurzweil and become obsessed with exponential technologies — computation, sensors, networks, AI, robotics, 3D printing, synthetic biology, AR/VR, blockchain. All of these technologies are about to reach their peak adoption simultaneously.

This will change the human experience.

According to Peter, the pessimism age is fuelled by realism. Realism is based on the past though. The exponential age is based on the future. It’s unlike anything humans have experienced.

It’s going to leave the pessimism age for dead.

Here’s what we can expect from Peter’s experience. It’s time to get fired up!

• Humans will live mostly off-world in places other than Earth. This fact is often not taken into account by the pessimists that say climate change will wipe out humans.
• Energy will be abundant. We’ll find ways to harness the sun’s energy better. Electricity will likely cost $0 in the exponential age.
• Asteroid mining will become a reality. We may be able to mine them for water or precious metals like gold.
• The internet will be free. Satellites will beam internet to every human on the planet. This level of connectivity will enable the exponential age.
• AI newsletters will become a thing. Algorithms will be able to scour the internet for information. AI will be able to rewrite the information so you can understand and digest it faster.
• Innovation will happen in the metaverse. Institutions and governments are why we entered the pessimism age in the first place. They’re too slow to think and react. In the metaverse there are no boundaries. Experiments and ideas can be built freely without clashing heads with legislators and excess regulation that favors those in power, who only seek to hold onto their power.

Closing Thought

We’re exhausted by the dystopian mindset.

It’s coming to an end.

The exponential age is here. Optimists will rule the world again. Technology will prove there are solutions to hard problems. This isn’t a time to give up or think the world is ending. The future is bright.

Solution: If you feel pessimistic, follow Peter Diamandis and learn about the Exponential Age.

This is the best time in human history to be alive. Congrats.

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