Sumit Paul-Choudhury

So, you know, if they move a black card, there'll be food behind it. If they move the white card, there won't be. And once they're trained to do this, you show them a grey card and you see what they do. And what happens is that most chickens tend to go for the grey card, which basically means they think, well, it's probably going to have food.

It's more likely to have food behind it than it's not, which is essentially an animal version, a chicken version of optimism. And when you start looking around, you discover that lots of animals do this. All sorts of animals, kind of the clever animals you might expect, like monkeys and dolphins and dogs.

It's more likely to have food behind it than it's not, which is essentially an animal version, a chicken version of optimism. And when you start looking around, you discover that lots of animals do this. All sorts of animals, kind of the clever animals you might expect, like monkeys and dolphins and dogs.

It's more likely to have food behind it than it's not, which is essentially an animal version, a chicken version of optimism. And when you start looking around, you discover that lots of animals do this. All sorts of animals, kind of the clever animals you might expect, like monkeys and dolphins and dogs.

But also, as I say, chickens, sheep, even animals that we think of as being really simple, like bumblebees, express this kind of bias. And the most compelling explanation I found for this is that essentially you need something to motivate you to take action when you don't know what the future holds. When you're presented with an ambiguous situation.

But also, as I say, chickens, sheep, even animals that we think of as being really simple, like bumblebees, express this kind of bias. And the most compelling explanation I found for this is that essentially you need something to motivate you to take action when you don't know what the future holds. When you're presented with an ambiguous situation.

But also, as I say, chickens, sheep, even animals that we think of as being really simple, like bumblebees, express this kind of bias. And the most compelling explanation I found for this is that essentially you need something to motivate you to take action when you don't know what the future holds. When you're presented with an ambiguous situation.

When you don't know what the answer is, when you have a grey card, or in the human case, when you have a glass half full of water. Obviously nobody ever does that experiment, but you understand the point. If you have the half glass of water and you have to decide if it's half full or half empty, there isn't actually a good answer to that. There's no meaningful answer to that.

When you don't know what the answer is, when you have a grey card, or in the human case, when you have a glass half full of water. Obviously nobody ever does that experiment, but you understand the point. If you have the half glass of water and you have to decide if it's half full or half empty, there isn't actually a good answer to that. There's no meaningful answer to that.

When you don't know what the answer is, when you have a grey card, or in the human case, when you have a glass half full of water. Obviously nobody ever does that experiment, but you understand the point. If you have the half glass of water and you have to decide if it's half full or half empty, there isn't actually a good answer to that. There's no meaningful answer to that.

You have to make a call of some decision. In kind of the long run, if you don't do anything every time you're presented with that kind of situation, you're gonna go extinct. You're not gonna thrive if every time you don't know what's gonna happen next, you do nothing. That isn't a recipe for success.

You have to make a call of some decision. In kind of the long run, if you don't do anything every time you're presented with that kind of situation, you're gonna go extinct. You're not gonna thrive if every time you don't know what's gonna happen next, you do nothing. That isn't a recipe for success.

You have to make a call of some decision. In kind of the long run, if you don't do anything every time you're presented with that kind of situation, you're gonna go extinct. You're not gonna thrive if every time you don't know what's gonna happen next, you do nothing. That isn't a recipe for success.

So optimism, and most of the time in life, we're faced with situations where we don't know what's gonna come next, not in detail. We may have an idea, and humans are better than most species, obviously, at figuring out what's coming next. But most of the time, we don't have enough information to know what's coming next. So you have to have something that makes you act.

So optimism, and most of the time in life, we're faced with situations where we don't know what's gonna come next, not in detail. We may have an idea, and humans are better than most species, obviously, at figuring out what's coming next. But most of the time, we don't have enough information to know what's coming next. So you have to have something that makes you act.

So optimism, and most of the time in life, we're faced with situations where we don't know what's gonna come next, not in detail. We may have an idea, and humans are better than most species, obviously, at figuring out what's coming next. But most of the time, we don't have enough information to know what's coming next. So you have to have something that makes you act.

And essentially, if you kind of work through the logic of this, if we make the right kind of mistake or you make the right kind of assumption, as long as the negative effects are that small, every now and again the positives are large. So you can think about this in all sorts of circumstances in your life, really.

And essentially, if you kind of work through the logic of this, if we make the right kind of mistake or you make the right kind of assumption, as long as the negative effects are that small, every now and again the positives are large. So you can think about this in all sorts of circumstances in your life, really.

And essentially, if you kind of work through the logic of this, if we make the right kind of mistake or you make the right kind of assumption, as long as the negative effects are that small, every now and again the positives are large. So you can think about this in all sorts of circumstances in your life, really.

I mean, if you apply for many jobs, for example, that you're not very likely to get, fair enough, most of the time you won't get them, but you haven't expended much beyond the cost of applying for those jobs. When you get one that is transformative for your life, on the other hand, it transforms your life.