Tobi Lütke

It's just like...

we've come pretty far.

And, like, things... I just refuse to believe that everything is going down in the shitter.

I think what has changed is we are gaining all the information.

Like, we are just, like... And we're kind of fully prepared for it.

We are, like, moving... Like, I think the net amount of bullshit on planet Earth

has probably been reasonably static.

And the amount normal people will encounter in their life has exponentially increased.

And I think that's skewing people's mind.

The problem is it might be self-reinforcing because I think pessimism, taking pessimistic perspective,

just means people don't do things otherwise.

If you think you can succeed, again, you need some optimism.

You can't start a company unless you are somewhat optimistic about the future.

You kind of have to know that at least your own tomorrow is going to be better after you start this company, but not to engage in doing something.

Yeah, I think if you all talk ourselves into everything is fucked around us, then I think we can talk ourselves into literally that happening, even though it's currently, at least by survey, people would not self-describe this as being in bad shape.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm long-term optimistic.

Short-term, I can be pessimistic, too.

I mean, fundamentally, there's a study of this.

Matt Ridley wrote a great book called Rational Optimist.