Half Empty or Half Full?

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Are you an optimist?...I try to be, but always end up disappointed...Are alot of the problems of our times due to apathy and pessimism?...Can you be happy in your micro world, but miserable in the macro world?...What are the people around you like?

― james e l, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Half empty. Pessimist. Misanthrope. I used to be an optimist, but I grew out of it.

― masonic boom, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I prefer to be a contrarian and be an optimist when around pessimists and a pessimist when around optimists. And an absurdist when around realists.

― Josh, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sour.

― chris, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Depends what you're talking about, really. I can't stand apathy and pessimism though... I'm a bit of a misanthrope myself sometimes. It's a wonder Kate and I like each other if we don't like people...!

― Paul Strange, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

what josh said, thats me really

― gareth, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

We like each other *because* we don't like people. We can be misanthropes together.

OK, I should qualify my pessimism. It is a pessimism about individual events and individuals, but strangely coupled with this strange optimism on a grand scale, that ultimately, though everything that can go wrong will go wrong, ultimately, everything will be alright.

What I fucking hate are "yes, but..." pessimists. The ones that want to talk about their problems endlessly, but the moment you try to come up with a solution, they immediately jump over your head with this whole long "yes, but..." argument about why it will never be right. Well, if you don't fucking try, how the fuck do you know, then? Stop whinging and get back into bed cause the sky is falling.

― masonic boom, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What josh and gareth said. This could run and run...

Kate and Paul - are you in some kind of pact to mention your relationship in every thread possible?

― Nick, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No, in fact, I fucking hate the way he does it! It doesn't happen on threads where I'm on by myself.

― masonic boom, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Completely full, damnit. I'm not an optimist, I"m completely delusional!

― Ally, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm a lazy optimist. I can be optimistic about things knowing full well that I'm going to do nothing about them or have any effect on them whatsoever.

― Jonnie, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Each and every cloud has a silver lining. For example, I can trace a whole load of brilliant things back to not having an English teacher, just a string of supply teachers, for the two years I was doing my GCSEs. At the time my parents and I thought it was disgraceful. Actually, it was disgraceful, but the choices I had to make because of my exam results culminated in 15 months spent very happily in Italy with some of the best friends I'll ever make. So however shitty things are, I'm sure it always works out for the best. How very Pangloss.

― Madchen, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I balance an extreme cynicism towards the institutional part of the universe with a cheerful happiness about life in general. The result is very handy. :-)

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pessimism of the intellect; optimism of the will. Cry on the inside! Laugh on the outside!

― stevie t, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It depends on whether you are drinkking or pouring .
I try to be fairly realisitc.

― anthony, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Either way is fine with me. I'm a pro-halfer!

― Joe, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And around Ned I would probably argue that life in general is nothing without its institutions. Which I guess would also put me in the Josh camp. But it's hard for me to find anything to be pessimistic about, really, so I guess I'm an optimist by default (delusional probably is a better word, thanks Ally!).

― Kris, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I do believe I'm an optimist at the moment and am trying to stay that way. Life is peachy as I am so unbelievably content. Come to think of it, the only thing I'm ever pessimistic about is myself, which I really shouldn't be. (Sorry, this is like a therapeutic exercise where I type out positive things to remind myself.) I had a friend who was an incredible misanthrope and pessimist, but I believe this was also because he was very arrogant, and hence I have completely gone off him, or he's gone off me, or something, I'm not quite sure...

Bill

― Bill, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But surely the glass is a quarter full, a quarter empty, and half half-and-half?

― mark s, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the glass is shattered

― Geoff, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Know the fullness of the glass and you see a static picture. Know how the fullness is changing and you understand the thing in its motion. And, of course, the glass is evaporating.

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Optimist, pessimist...whateverthefuck. I'm a broke alcoholic: the glass is always completely empty.

― Otis Wheeler, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Half empty or half full?" = if one, then always both.

― AP, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Half full, more than half empty. Look at that damn glass - its spilling over with emptiness. If we're not careful that emptiness will fill the whole room!!!!

I tend not to take things too seriously.

― Pete, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Are your lives half empty, or half full?

― masonic boom, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Half over.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 12 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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