pessimism v realism?

[bubbles4920]

what is the difference between a pessimist and a realist. surely if you are a realist you are being pessimistic???!

[B00]

My take on it is that a realist accepts things the way they are, whereas a pessimist will continually whinge about it

[ELVIS68]

A realist sees the glass half full, a pessimist sees it half empty...and a p!sshead just fills it up again

[ELVIS68]

An Englishman says it`s half empty, a paddy says it`s half full, a jock says whos round is it

[Pippa68]

I agree with BOO. Mr P is an eternal optimist, and he calls me a pessimist..however prefer to think of myself as a realist as I do like to prepare myself for all eventualities ~ and I don't winge about it either!

Incidently, I am usually right :o)

[Skreecheeboy]

A realist will see the glass as half full if that is how far it has been filled, if the glass was full and has been emptied to the half way point the glass would then be half empty.

[legend758duo]

but skreech in reality it would still be half full.
thats undeniable.

[joko]

a pessimist will go through life convinced that whatever can go wrong will go wrong and that nothing good ever happens to them - and if it something good does happen they will find some minor negative element about it to moan about

a realist is just very aware that problems do happen and are not blinded into taking foolish risks and going into something unprepared because they are over optimistic, but also doesn't spend their life worrying and moaning

[joko]

the point is the glass is both - half full and half empty - half and half

its indicative of your state of mind if you focus on whether you are subconsciously happy to have something in the glass at all and that something has space to add to it, or whether you subconsciously feel shortchanged or that something has been taken from you.

it all relative though - you'd feel shortchanged if a quarter of your pint was missing as you have paid for a deserve a whole pint, but you would feel grateful if someone gave you a quarter of a glass of, say liquid gold.