People are often surprised to learn that I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you’ve noticed.) I’m actually named on a web site that lists Famous Cynics. You don’t normally associate cynicism with an upbeat attitude. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.
I’ve always been an optimist. Every time I enter a contest or play a game, I fully expect to win, regardless of the odds. Every time I go to the mailbox, I expect to find a check. It’s just that sort of irrational optimism that caused me to enter cartooning with exactly zero experience and no artistic talent to speak of. (That worked out okay.) It’s what caused me to write a book when I had never taken a writing course. (My first book was The Dilbert Principle and it was a #1 New York Times best seller.)
While I’ve had some notable successes, the vast majority of things I’ve attempted have been flops. But I shake them off and keep on plugging. I always learn something from the flops that helps me later. For example, failing at my corporate careers made me a better cartoonist. And I fully expect that the next thing I try will work, so there’s no point in dwelling on the past.
I’m also optimistic about humanity in general. I think we’ll solve the problems of terrorism, war, poverty, and most diseases in my lifetime. I really do. And I think the next generation is better than every generation that came before, including the so-called Greatest Generation.
I’m optimistic about myself and about humanity in general. My problem is with the average asshole who I often assume is a self-destructive miscreant, already circling the drain and trying to take me with him. This view is no more “true” than my irrational optimism, but I find it useful to think that way. It keeps me on my toes so I can recognize the most dangerous scams and traps before it’s too late. And of course it helps me write comics.
Despite my dismal view of many individuals, as a matter of preference I give people my trust before they earn it, so long as the downside of doing so isn’t too deadly. But that has less to do with those other people and more to do with who I want to be. I find that trust changes people. They become what you tell them you expect. Likewise, you become what you expect of yourself.
As a human being, you are a collection of many things: skin, bones, brains, experience and emotion. But more than all of that, you are your expectations. That’s why I choose to be an optimist.