[geedy]

Optimism is really, really hard. It requires you to risk looking foolish. Our emotional needs to feel connected work against us staking a position too far away from the norm.

But few great things have been accomplished without the risk of looking foolish, at least at the outset.

[pfdietz]

What? I constantly see people being optimistic based on nothing more than misplaced wishful thinking. Optimism is the default, officially approved thing you're supposed think about fusion. It's being skeptical that requires effort, since it requires doubting what the media and authority figures tell you.