@aboundlessworld Good article man ! However, I would have to say that in my opinion that being critical is a form of critical thinking, not just rubber stamping ok to everything. Having said that, being cynical or having a negative attitude is something altogether different. Actually, having malicious intent while being critical is what I believe is bad. This is based on a pragmatic/realist and of course from a professionalism point of view, not just being negative in general ... So I do agree with your premise ! +1 & Followed !
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Good point. We do associate cynicism with negativity, although I think that's because a lot of negativity comes from cynical people. I think that being cynical with malicious intent is a third thing to which proactive malintent applies.
'Rubber stamping everything as OK' (nice phrase) is of course not optimistic, but extremely foolish. However, I believe that some people are ensnared by cynicism and are victims of their own outlook.
I would imagine (I could be wrong) that the older you get , ACTUALLY you are becoming more critical .. and because you catch yourself being MORE critical you are negatively judging yourself as being more cynical. In a stressful situation wouldn't being more critical be really easy to call cynical ?
It kind of reminds me of what I discovered several years ago .. I grew up doing electrical, electronic and then computer work, so I always had a personal obligation to do "best work" (imo) because of this, regardless of what I was doing "best work" ethic was still ingrained and people would say I was a Perfectionist. After many years of this I was troubled by the negative connotation of the word perfectionist. So changed this designation to being a Precisionist, (Which is really what I am) and started correcting people by saying "I am a Precisionist, NOT a perfectionist", to get away from the negative connotation.
perhaps you should try this in your life .. Say you are older and wiser and have a sharper eye for detail, therefore you are more critical so as not make mistakes, which is NOT a negative connotation as is Cynical !
Just sayin ... hope that helps ! Us old folks need to stick together !, lol
Thanks for caring my friend. I take your point and it's one way of looking at it, although I wish you'd defined what you mean by precisionist rather than perfectionist.
No, I always like to be moving forward, and at the moment, that is not the case, so I am becoming cynical. In my defense, and on reflection, my cynicism could be directly caused by my recent circumstances, but I think it's probably due to growing older, and not achieving the goals I've set myself. I'm not giving up, by any means, but things are taking too long, and with the present situation, I can't see things speeding up.
Well, basically a perfectionist is someone that nit pics everything, never good enough.
that is the modern term anyway, what I meant by having a negative connotation.
A Precisionist is: when a machine makes parts and the allowed tolerances are + or - .005 of an inch. That means a part say, 1 inch in diameter can be from .955 to 1.005. So a Precisionist works on the machine and makes it make parts better (More Precise) than what it was doing. My work makes parts that are only + or - .002 in. so new part are better ! parts are now .999 - 1.001 inch, better parts, cause homi don't PLAY !