Psychological experiments show that when animals or people are subjected to negative events they cannot control, they learn to be helpless. Later, even when they have the power to change their situation, they often remain passive and fail to act.
Psychologist Martin Seligman found that animals exhibiting learned helplessness showed passivity, cognitive difficulties, and sadness. These symptoms aligned with 8 of the 9 diagnostic criteria for unipolar depression, suggesting depression can be a learned response to a lack of control.
Resilience isn't about avoiding failure, but how one explains it. Optimists, who resist helplessness, view bad events as temporary ('I had a hangover') and specific to a situation ('That's her'). Pessimists see them as permanent ('I'm stupid') and pervasive ('I'm unlovable').
Studies at West Point's 'Beast Barracks' and with MetLife insurance salespeople revealed that optimists consistently outperformed pessimists. Optimists were more likely to graduate from brutal training and persist in sales roles defined by constant rejection.
Psychologist Martin Seligman posits that the 'Axial Age' of innovation (around 500 BCE) was triggered by a linguistic and philosophical shift. Ancient texts show a move from stories of gods commanding action to humans making choices, which unlocked progress.
Unlike the West's focus on individual agency ('I can do it'), historical progress in China is correlated with a balance between collective state agency ('we') and individual drive. Stagnation occurs when the state's power crushes individual agency.
After his five-year-old daughter called him a 'grouch,' psychologist Martin Seligman had an epiphany. He realized his success came despite his pessimism, not because of it, and successfully resolved to change his fundamental disposition.