Overfitting is not the way to implement optimism. Rather, focus on unbounded positivity.

I like to consider myself an optimist. It feels good, it’s effective in producing useful artifacts, and it makes moral sense.

But there are different ways to implement optimism, and I think for a while I have been overfitting positivity onto negative experiences, which neglects the actual point of the exercise of optimism.

Dropout layers intentionally keep some negative noise to generalize better, and now I realize that instead of trying to ignore the negative aspects, experiences, and feelings I have (as I had erroneously believed before to be “optimism”), I would be better served by trying to contextualize and integrate some of those lessons in an accurate manner.

For example, this pair of twins used to bully me pretty hard. For a while, I simply associated that sort of behaviour to all blonde women, because that’s what the twins were. This is obviously not a great sentiment to have, because confirmation bias will guarantee I see that conclusion validated.

To be an “Effective Optimist,” I now realize that the solution is not to completely block out these experiences and sentiments, but better contextualize and ascribe why I feel that way. In this case, my hatred towards them was because I could not stand up for myself. At least with physical bullying I could fight back, albeit ineffectively. Social bullying has very little counters, especially in a limited and constrained environment such as elementary school. I dislike living in limbo with unresolved conflict, even one which is more emotional than substance (ie. childhood conflicts).

The second order effect is that they’re now software engineers and in the workplace. While I have only had positive experiences with coworkers, I also haven’t worked in a more “turbulent” workplace such as RBC Amplify or big tech, where there’s more inter-employee competition. The Effective Optimist in me is not going to ignore the implication that these folks are capable of social harm, but rather understand their motivations, implement my defence strategies effectively (through reading and regular life), and just live my life to the fullest without spending too many cycles on preemptive calculation.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”