Different Than<p>Depressive realism is the paradoxical finding that people experiencing active <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/depression" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>depression</span></a> are often more accurate in their judgments of the likelihood of success, good things happening, or the level of control they have over those things than people who are not depressed.</p><p>It's paradoxical because non-depressed people's illusions about control, predictability, and good things around the corner actually lead to more good things happening, on average, because those illusions are motivating. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy for many people (at least compared to people having a depressive episode) based on an inaccurate understanding of reality.</p><p>The USA seems to be investing heavily right now in widening the outcome divide between realistic pessimism and unrealistic optimism: The "grind culture" or "hustle lifestyle" shit blames anyone with motivational issues for their circumstances and praises anyone with good circumstances, no matter how much or little they had to do with those.</p><p>None of this is new. I just think we're dialing it up.</p><p><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/work" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>work</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/jobs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>jobs</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/toxicpositivity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>toxicpositivity</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/motivation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>motivation</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/mentalhealth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>mentalhealth</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/cognitivebiases" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cognitivebiases</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/uspol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>uspol</span></a></p>