Can you help me with a formula for playing devil's advocate to a pessimistic friend? [more inside]
posted by FairlyFarley on Dec 10, 2009 - 19 answers

You know the feeling you get when you succeed at something you initially thought you weren't capable of? I want to feel that way more often. What things, big or small, do you do in your life which give you the joy of proving your inner pessimist wrong?
posted by embrangled on May 11, 2009 - 49 answers

Can someone who seems embittered by their experiences with the world in general, and with people, institutions, religion and relationships in particular, improve their view with a change in circumstances? Or, is how they handle the feelings from those experiences more about character, with a change in location or fortunes not having much long-term emotional effect? [more inside]
posted by CollectiveMind on Mar 23, 2009 - 18 answers

What is the most optimistic music known to humankind, and what is the most pessimistic or depressing music known to humankind? I'm looking for genres but I'm focusing on songs. I am also interested to see which side wins in this competition -- I'd suspect the darker side defeats the lighter side in quantity, but what about quality?
posted by Knigel on Oct 20, 2007 - 76 answers

Has the US economic outlook always been so gloomy? [more inside]
posted by eas98 on May 2, 2006 - 15 answers

How does an eternal pessimist find a ray of sunshine in a gloomy world? [more inside]
posted by nightengine on Aug 8, 2005 - 30 answers

Need help making an analogy. Can anyone think of pessimistic, self-berating characters from books, TV, etc. - especially ones that know they aren't that great or brilliant to begin with but announce it to the world anyway (unlike, say, Marvin the Paranoid Android)?
posted by casarkos on Jan 1, 2005 - 25 answers