Elon Musk said this week that realism has its place but optimism should guide daily life, using a new social media post to argue that looking for the “bright side” matters as much as staying grounded.
Elon Musk Emphasizes An Optimistic Mindset
The post quoted-tweeted engineer, physician and entrepreneur Peter H. Diamandis and echoed a refrain Musk has voiced in public conversations over the years.
“Better to live life erring on the side of being optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right! Be realistic, but, as Monty Python would say, always look on the bright side of life!” Musk wrote on X.
Diamandis’ original post read, “The only time more exciting to be alive than today is tomorrow.”
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Musk is also widely quoted as saying, “I’d rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right,” although there’s no conclusive evidence as to when he first said it.
Monty Python Motto Mirrors Musk’s Pragmatic Cheer
That said, in an early-2024 discussion with Diamandis, Musk elaborated, “I think as a general rule of living, it is better to err on the side of being optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right. And if you’re going to err on one side or the other, it’s just a higher quality of life to err on the side of being optimistic and risk being wrong than pessimistic and right. Optimism is going to make you happy.”
As for the Monty Python line Musk references, where he says “always look on the bright side of life,” has surfaced in the Tesla Inc. CEO’s earlier comments too, according to an Axios report, highlighting the mix of cheer and pragmatism he says he prefers.
Other business and policy figures make similar arguments. Jeff Bezos has said people who are “right a lot” change their minds, guidance often paired with a bias toward exploration. Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang, meanwhile, urges graduates to focus on opportunities new technologies create, not just the jobs they displace.
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