The "Race of Truth"

[Alan]

I discovered a term for what Peter Lawless suffers from. It's called "defensive pessimism". This article tin today's New York Times tells more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/healt ... chologists

[Rolf]

Good article. This resonated for me:

Not everyone wants to compete, of course. Recreational athletes, says David B. Coppel, a sports psychologist at the University of Washington, take pleasure in a sport for its own sake and often feel no need to train and see how well they can do.

“They don’t care about their times,” he said. “It’s not a mastery issue. They are not trying to conquer a hill, but just trying to climb it.”

[Plawless]

Interesting article but I dont think it quite captures me. I would self diagnose as a "relentless optimist"