If you think things are going to get worse you might be right

I wrote on Pessimism and Optimism early Tuesday. The article is here.

A WSJ article that drove that post. This is part of it.

To the blindest of optimists, even contingency planning looks like negativity. Robert McBurnett, a chief financial officer, once worked for a company where any business opportunity was circulated among department heads to weigh the upside against concerns. Then, an unbending optimist bought the company. Any concerns were met with, "Why are you being negative?" says Mr. McBurnett. So, they found themselves forced to fix things in midproject and troubleshoot on the fly.

"They're so confident they can make chicken salad out of chicken ..." (well, you get the idea), says Mr. McBurnett. But "it's extremely stressful on your midlevel managers. They don't last long."

Read the whole thing.