Maybe the most important conjecture in the whole thing is the one that isn't backed up; that optimists are in fact more likely to be successful (in any sense of the term). Is there factual basis to that claim? A healthy sense of dread and paranoia can be useful (if not fun). Obviously demotivating depression isn't helping anyone, but I don't understand why, prima facie, optimists ought to be "better at stuff" than pessimists.

Also -- this is great and I really enjoyed it. As I have all stuff of yours that I've read. In particular anything related to trampolines and javascript.