Word: optimists
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...evinced considerable relief that the summit had gone as well as it did. Caught in the middle, they had grown apprehensive about the deep superpower chill during Reagan's first term. "Now, after Geneva, there is no need for pessimism," proclaimed West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. "I am an optimist...
...Spend enough time talking to Wales-a confessed "pathological optimist"-and you'll believe his life has been one long laugh riot. Options and futures trading, which Wales did in Chicago for much of the 1990s, was "fun and cool." Quitting his job and moving to San Diego to start an Internet company? Delightful. Paying the mortgage purely from investments, even to this day? Fantastic. Spending two years trying to start an online encyclopedia called Nupedia yet getting no further than the first 12 articles? Not a lot of fun, actually...
Nupedia's problem was that it was a centralized, top-down system. The software had seven laborious stages of fact checking and peer review. Then Wales discovered wikis, and the pathological optimist had his eureka moment. His new goal was to create a free encyclopedia for all, in their own language, written by anyone. It took Wikipedia just two weeks to grow larger than its predecessor...
...upbeat thesis occasionally collides with reality: even in India, the high-tech sector accounts for just 0.2% of employment. He concedes that the rapid spread of technology and information may also boost Islamic extremism, by heightening Muslims' frustration at the underdevelopment of their societies. But Friedman is a born optimist. When he asks the young Indians doing jobs outsourced from the U.S. whether they are worried about terrorism or war with Pakistan, they tell him they're too busy working. To Friedman, that's a sign that a flatter planet will be a better one. "To the extent that this...
...true optimist, I have not resigned myself to the fact that the next occupant of the White House will be sent there from the state of Tennessee. Instead, I am trusting that the Doctor will manage his candidacy as ineffectively as he managed the Senate. His poor leadership has been a boon to Democrats, especially when they were able to swing enough Republican votes to cut Bush’s original tax cuts in half. If, however, Frist proves better on the stump than he is in the Senate, my embarrassment will be complete, and I will be forced...