Re: the purpose of optimism
 

how can u apply aejones theroum if you aint optomist?

Re: the purpose of optimism
 

If you want to know something very interesting about optimism I recommend "The Secret". This is an amazing movie about our thoughts.
Men becomes what he thinks about. Any aim, any dream before completing was an image in your mind. Positive thinking is extremely important not just in real life but also in poker. You need to belive you are able to win. Truly beliving in yourself, beliving you deserve hapiness and success.

Re: the purpose of optimism
 

Pessimism is losing without a fight. Optimism is missing pessimistic factors and makes mistakes because of that. Pessimism has no life in it. Optimism is not the reality, just life. There is a balance in-between, and it's not hard to see that optimism should be the master and the pessimism the slave.

Re: the purpose of optimism
 

optimists live longer, true study, google it

Re: the purpose of optimism
 

mindset can work as a self-fullfilling-prophecy
example:
you think you got no skills in technical stuff. this leads to situations where you avoid to get skilled in technical stuff (your computer got a defect-you call your brother to let him repair it etc.)
5years later you really got no skills at all in technical stuff.

example:
you see a girl in a bar, want to flirt with her but your pessimistic mentality is telling you that she will not be in the mood to flirt with you. however , you are trying to flirt with her. but you will do it in a way that is not fun for her and you cause you are building resistance out of nothing. so the effect will be that she is really not in the mood to flirt with you.

how is this affecting your poker?
example:
you think you are always getting sucked out when you hold aces. so you dont raise the flop aggressive cause you will loose probably anyway to some donk holding 63off not respecting your raise. because of your lack of aggressiveness someone got a greater chance to break your aces.

Re: the purpose of optimism
 

pessimist- poker is rigged i cant win *crys like a lil girl

optimist- oh look.. variance, cute

Re: the purpose of optimism
 

I see the poker is rigged crowd as optimists. They still hold on to the delusional belief that they are good poker players despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Re: the purpose of optimism
 

Just been at a psychology guest lecture funnily enough, actually about belief and magic, but also had a lot to do with optimistic v skeptic thinking.
The primary argument was that in many tests done with people who consider themselves optimists or pessimists, or natural lucky or unlucky, those who were negative in mind were restricting their ability by failing to see oppurtunity. One test was getting groups to read and count the amount of ads on a specially designed newspaper as quick as possible. There were however 3 big half page ads that told the readers "dont bother counting- there are 53 ads in this paper". Tests suggest that people who consider themselves lucky/optimistic "seen" these ads more so than the pessimists. Came down to the idea that those think in a positive way have a more open and less restrictive way of viewing life. Negativity seems to restrict this.

In poker the benefits of this are obvious. You would find many sports people at the top of their profession who live with a negative attitude.

Also optimistic people live longer: http://www.livescience.com/health/04...ist_heart.html

An obvious retort to this question would be, why would you not strive to think optimistically?

Re: the purpose of optimism
 

[ QUOTE ]
Just play and have fun, yet play well. The money will follow.

[/ QUOTE ]



Also, a good book on the value of optimism:

http://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-C...7557&sr=8-1

Re: the purpose of optimism
 

[ QUOTE ]
If you want to know something very interesting about optimism I recommend "The Secret". This is an amazing movie about our thoughts.
Men becomes what he thinks about. Any aim, any dream before completing was an image in your mind. Positive thinking is extremely important not just in real life but also in poker. You need to belive you are able to win. Truly beliving in yourself, beliving you deserve hapiness and success.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you want to know something very interesting about optimism I recommend "Scientology". As it turns out, your negative thoughts are actually a result of Body Thetans attaching themselves to our bodies...

I've got a bit of a problem with things like "The Secret" and "The Power of Now". These are products (a movie and a book respectively) that encourage you to rapidly change your complete outlook on life. But when the novelty wears out, you realize that you've stepped into a whole new world of science fiction where you "tell the universe what you want, visualize it, and receive it". Can you really believe that just by visualizing an empty parking spot right by the entrance of a crowded mall, you can make it so? Then it's just a matter of who's memory is selective enough to convince themselves that it all works.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for optimism. Pessimism and depression are probably not too far apart and then you lose your aspirations and you're just generally not as happy in life. But these rapid "no, this is the way you're actually supposed to live your life!" books and movies that seem to come out all the time now aren't the best way to get there. Any book on setting goals and time management is far superior to anything that just spouts optimism as the solution to all of life's problems.