Meet the Rational Optimist

The only problem I see is that he is mistakenly conflating hope and optimism. They are quite different things. He's right about pessimism, but optimism says things will definitely turn out well, and that's as reality-denying as pessimism.

give the state of the world, we need optimism more than pessimism

I stumbled on this article not an hour after typing a blog entry about the spread of pessimism in the American workforce.

Thanks for the link! His ideas, while not necessarily novel or groundbreaking, are refreshing to read.

http://www.booksandsuits.wordpress.com

As usual, pessimists are being misrepresented here, which is common when optimists attempt to validate their inherently lazier mindset.
Pessimism does not foster "resignation, despair and a sense of powerlessness." Quite the contrary. Pessimists tend to work harder than optimists and spend more time thinking through alternate scenarios to prepare for the possibility that things might not go as planned. Optimists, on the other hand, tend to assume it will all work out just fine, which leads to passivity and a lack of preparedness when things don't work out so well. When things go wrong, they go more wrong for optimists, who aren't prepared, than for pessimists, who are. Pessimism is a highly functional and responsible approach - for example, the cockpit drill of professional pilots is based on the premise that if something can go wrong it eventually will, and you certainly want your pilots to think that way. When it's important to be right, you do not want PollyAnna in charge.
While there are some questionable arguments that pessimists are less happy than optimists (doubtful, since pessimists are constantly being pleasantly surprised), maximal happiness does not seem to be an especially primary objective for most people, but rather one of several considerations people use in choosing their course of action. Successful pessimists also know that the biggest driver of unhappiness is worrying about things beyond your control - which is not at all a necessary component of pessimism. Having taken what sensible precautions you can, you let it go and hope for the best.
Hope is not the sole preserve of optimists; pessimists hope too. Pessimists, too, recognize that sometimes hope is all you have. But at least they recognize that hope is not a strategy.

Hope is the golden mean between optimism and pessimism. A true pessimist and a true optimist both do not have or believe in hope.