OPTIMISTS  VS. PESSIMISTS REVISITED I probably wouldn’t have clicked on the Scientific American article if it hadn’t opened with the line: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”—the famous first sentence of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. That novel happens to be one of my favorites; I’ve read all 800-plus pages of it—twice. Although it opens with a nod to Tolstoy, the article isn’t about him or his novel. Instead, it explores how optimists and pessimists think in fundamentally different ways. I wrote on this theme back in May in my post Boost Your...

BOOST YOUR HAPPINESS—& YOUR LIFESPAN For years, research offered mixed conclusions to whether optimists or pessimists live longer.  But in recent studies, a clearer picture is emerging: people with a positive outlook tend to have a lower risk of early death from various conditions, including heart disease and cancer. In short, If you’re happy and you know it, don’t just clap your hands—there’s a good chance you’ll live longer, too. The most recent study I’ve come across was a May 2, 2025,  MayoClinic.org article titled Do optimists live longer and better? Here are some key takeaways: Increasing evidence suggests that...