65 lines
2.3 KiB
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65 lines
2.3 KiB
Plaintext
[1][ ] [2] CB
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Christopher Butler
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[3]Information [4]Contents [5]Now Menu Close
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»
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[6]Home [7]Information [8]Contents [9]Now [10]RSS
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© Christopher Butler.
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All rights reserved.
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Christopher Butler
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log
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The Productive Afterward
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Summary
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JA Westenberg's essay on the merits of optimism is a helpful reminder.
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Published on February 25, 2026 by Christopher Butler
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[SOT]
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[11]This, from JA Westenberg, is well-put:
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“I’m going to argue that the pessimists have the best narratives and the
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worst track record. The doom scenarios require assumptions that don’t
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survive contact with economic history, and the psychological posture you
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bring to this moment actually matters for how it turns out.”
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Westenberg’s essay is about why optimism at a time like the present makes
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sense. It’s exactly the sort of thing—when thoughtfully argued and laden with
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examples—that I need to read, as I tend to articulate optimism while
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internalizing the opposite. I tend to give every catastrophe a hearing, and
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even a momentary “what if this is right” leaves a mark on brain matter. That
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isn’t to say that ignoring all warnings is a good idea, nor is that what
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Westenberg recommends. But it is a helpful reminder that “catastrophist keep
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being wrong.” And one benefit to aging is that you can accumulate many
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directly-lived examples of just that.
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I do appreciate the implicit message throughout this piece that reminds me of
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something important: we do experience great changes—the status quo isn’t
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untouchable—but the human drive to do something is both the most reliable force
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in ensuring future technological threats to our way of life and the productive
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afterward.
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[EOT]
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© Christopher Butler. All rights reserved.
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[12]Information [13]Contents [14]Now [15]RSS
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References:
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[2] https://www.chrbutler.com/
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[3] https://www.chrbutler.com/information
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[4] https://www.chrbutler.com/archives
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[5] https://www.chrbutler.com/now
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[6] https://www.chrbutler.com/
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[7] https://www.chrbutler.com/information
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[8] https://www.chrbutler.com/archives
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[9] https://www.chrbutler.com/now
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[10] https://www.chrbutler.com/feed.rss
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[11] https://www.joanwestenberg.com/everything-is-awesome-why-im-an-optimist/
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[12] https://www.chrbutler.com/information
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[13] https://www.chrbutler.com/archives
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[14] https://www.chrbutler.com/now
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[15] https://www.chrbutler.com/feed.rss
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