From the editor

A few years ago I took Professor Martin Seligman’s Learned Optimism test. It was designed to work out why some people excelled in insurance sales, and others couldn’t last six months before leaving due to stress-induced breakdowns.

It turns out successful salespeople have a freakish amount of optimism, 98th percentile stuff. A potential customer saying ‘no’ to them is just another step closer to a sale from someone else.

My score was also 98th percentile stuff, but in the other direction. Normally,

I’d be thrilled to be in a special group, but this one, not so much. It turns out being an uber pessimist makes life really hard.

The same research found you’re born with a level of optimism or pessimism, that the world needs both super optimists (salespeople, racecar drivers) and pessimists (lawyers, pilots). It also found pessimists can learn to become more optimistic.

Oddly, finding out I was a pessimist was liberating. It explained so much about what I felt were my odd thought processes, why I was really excited to have a sprinkler system installed inside my house, and why you’ll never see me trying to sell anything.

It’s also the reason why this winter, there’s a lot more kawakawa on my block. Bear with me, and I’ll take you through a pessimist’s thought process.

For years, there has been a big weedy bank just below the house. It’s one of the first things you see when you come up the driveway. It’s very ugly, and this year, kikuyu started growing in it. Something had to be done.

The reason the bank has been bare for the last 13+ years is due to my pessimism. I knew I wanted to plant something, but it had to fulfil a lot of criteria. First and foremost, being so close to the house, it had to be something that wouldn’t spread a fire. I’ve seen how fast fire can move, and how crispy it gets here in summer.

It turns out kawakawa is one of the least flammable native plants, and pretty hardy. Even better, it has wonderful health benefits and tastes pretty good too (see page 34).

The perfect plant for a pessimist.

It has wonderful health benefits, tastes pretty good, and it’s unlikely to catch fire.