Another week in the books, new formats, and today is 44 days of publishing a recent newsletter. Next week we will hit the self-imposed magical 50 days and be halfway to 100 published posts. The accelerated learning and adjustments will make the newsletter in 2023 years ahead of where it would be under a slower publishing schedule. Today we get into Optimism, Design, Color, and Uncommon Music.

Hannah Ritchie's thought-provoking article in BIG Thinks where she started to dig into Doomerism. It's hard to figure out why we spend so much time in the mud when most of us work all day to make things better for most people we spend time with. Here are the highlights.

The definition of pessimism is “a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen.”

Optimism, on the other hand, is the “hopefulness and confidence about the future or the success of something.”

Don't mistake criticism for pessimism; we need criticism to move forward; good criticism is on the same page as optimism, and we need it to achieve success. Pessimisthey m says don't; there, there is no success.

We also confuse optimism as an excuse for inaction, and we go further and say nothing changes until we get fed up with where we are and change it. On the surface, this looks like pessimism moved us forward, but pessimism isn't interested in change; it only wants to stay in the non-working part of the situation. Optimism says the answer is out there; find it. If you didn't think the solution or the improvement was out there, you would not look for it. Optimistsptimist move things, and Pessimists complain about them.

Ultimately, "There are almost limitless opportunities to shift the goalposts. A pessimistic stance is a safe one. There is often little to lose."

Why is optimism so hard that most people can't say "I told you so" when you talk about optimism? Is it that we tend to go into doom first, and anything short of defeat makes us feel a little better? It's said that 90% of the bad things you think will happen to you don't. Then why did we make Facebook the first ever billion-user company in history?? Is it too much "Pollyanna"?

People don't work all day every day to make things worse. If we spend the majority of our time on making progress and making a positive difference, why do we spend our downtime watching doom?

Part of this is the impatience we have with all situations. Optimism is always looking long term; pessimism doesn't believe in the long term, only the negativity of now.

The impatience of many optimists working every day to improve things is with pessimists, not the challenges.

Welcome to a new section on Design and how Design can increase energy, Design With A Shout!

Author and Super Designer Ingrid Fetell Lee Wrote a book in 2018 called Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. One of the first stories Fetell Lee talks about is about a town in Albania called Tirana, where she describes the city as filthy, impoverished, and frightening. That changed when a new Mayor of Tirana named Edi Rama painted an entire building in the city's heart a bright orange; by orange, it looked like a combination of tangerine and tang.

In the beginning, most residents did not know what to think about this strange tactic, but the results are hard to argue. Four years after being elected as the Mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama won the World Mayor in 2004. People in the city started cleaning other areas up, and the Mayor added more color; people began to pay taxes which increased revenues and allowed for more color and more open spaces for people to expand the community into. All of this started with adding a little color to an otherwise dark scene.

It’s easy to think about sitting at the beach or relaxing in a mountain cabin and how an environment and a scene like that can lower your blood pressure and help you relax. Color has a lot to do with that, too; close your eyes and picture yourself at the beach; what colors do you see? How about the mountains? That same association goes with the color of energy. Go to a concert, and there will probably be a light show that goes with the beat of the music. Go to the gym and take a group exercise class. It’s the same thing, lights, sounds, and colors all help to set the scene and drive up the energy in the space.

Design and colors can enhance experience and joy. Lack of Design and color can also improve negativity and isolation. This weekend look for your Color of Energy.

When Joey Santiago and Charles Thompson (Black Francis) met in college, they were both fans of music based on uncommon themes, rhythms, and sounds. Add Kim Deal and David Lovering to that, and you have the Pixies. Ask a lot of alternative bands who came after Pixies, and most of them will cite Pixies as an influence. 1989s, Doolittle was a college radio station steadfast for years.

Pixies just released a new album called Doggerel

Santiago was inspired by people like George Harrison, who played to serve the song. He admitted it would have been great to play a million-notes-a-second like Eddie VanHalen, but was drawn to a feel and a sound with Pixies that sound was very distinct.

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

Got me a movie
I want you to know
Slicing up eyeballs
I want you to know

WTF?

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us!

With A Shout Team