Yes, there are problems that we need to solve and things can suck but it's important to keep a balanced perspective. Things are also pretty great in many ways and they are getting even better for most people, most of the time.

I recommend getting a little perspective to balance the daily headlines thrust at us by reading [The Rational Optimist](*http://www.amazon.com/The-Rational-Optimist-Prosperity-Evolves/dp/0061452068) by Matt Ridley. It's a very well-researched and thoroughly footnoted work that shows overall, when averaged across all living humans, the quality of life, health, longevity and well-being of the average human is continuing to improve faster than it ever has - and the rate of improvement is itself increasing.

Yes, there are occasional setbacks for short periods of time or in certain regions, and there are always challenges to overcome and things to fix, but overall, by any measure, the improvement is undeniable.

Every generation has had its doom-sayers and they are invariably popular despite events almost never being as bad as they predict. As people age, many grow nostalgic for a past era that wasn't really as good as they remember. And older people are legendary for claiming "everything these days is going to hell in a hand basket". My grandparents did, my parents did and now I hear my friends starting to do it. This despite the overwhelming data to the contrary whether, economic, sociological, medical, anthropological, scientific or technological.

We're now beginning to understand that this is simply a human trait that is a constant. Despite things improving overall in thousands of ways large and small, humans are conditioned to focus on the negatives and to over-emphasize potential threats. Combine that with 24/7 global news reporting that invariably seeks to find and focus on the scariest-sounding soundbite from anywhere in the world today, we end up with a false perception that can rob people of the optimism they should rationally be feeling.