Optimism sometimes gets framed as naivete or ignorance. Unfortunately, when we take that perspective, it can hamper our willingness to work hard to make positive change, or even our belief that change is possible.
I like to think of optimism in the vein of the late Hans Rosling: "I'm a very serious 'possibilist'… It means someone who neither hopes without reason, nor fears without reason … As a possibilist, I see all this progress, and it fills me with conviction and hope that further progress is possible ... It is having a clear and reasonable idea about how things are. It is having a worldview that is constructive and useful" (Hans Rosling, Factfulness, 2017).
Optimism as a "possibilist" allows us to combine hope with effort to make the difference we want to see.
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