Unterschatzen - To Underestimate

Being something of cynic and a pessimist, underestimating the abilities of others as well as my own is quite routine. I simply cannot abide, nor could I ever be, a self-assured, arrogant dickend who struts around obliviously gathering contempt from anyone and everyone they meet. I mean if you’re going to be confident about something, keep it to yourself. Don’t shout it from the rooftops, because nobody really wants to hear it and you’re just setting yourself up for massive ridicule if you fail, or nonchalant congratulations if you succeed - nobody likes a cocky prick. Well I don’t anyway. But if you don’t build things up, if you don’t expect much from yourself or others, then you can be very pleasantly surprised when things turn out well. Vague optimism through constant pessimism, as contradictory as that sounds, is the way to go. For example, as my other recent writings suggest, I’m in the process of writing a stand-up comedy routine, which is of course a joke in itself. I’m almost certain it’s going be a complete disaster, but that doesn’t stop me from attempting to make it less disastrous by spending a lot of time writing and rewriting. I am underestimating my own ability, and expect nothing more than failure, so if by some miracle it goes okay or even well, I’ll feel better than I ever possibly could had I been just optimistic in the first place. So when people ask me if I’m confident, five minutes before I hit the microphone, I’ll respond a healthy Hell No! and just see what happens. It is definitely the same with all other aspects of life - expect complete shitness and the mental dividend for anything that turns out even fleetingly good will be tenfold. That promotion at work is never going to come, that new Coen Brothers film will disappoint you, John McCain will be the next US president, Fifty Cent will continually avoid assassination, and so on. Try it. It’s an underrated state of mind, although I won’t guarantee it working for you - in fact, I thoroughly expect it not to.