It can be done

I admit I'm a wild-eyed optimist - it's probably as much by my emotional / biochemical / psychological predisposition as anything, but the older I get, the more optimism becomes a matter of choice and less of a default position.

My optimism isn't entirely accomplished in the absence of reasons, but it's not solely based on reason either. If that was the case, I'd be a realist, right? Of course, I think optimists are the only true realists, but that's a discussion for another time.

But whatever the origin, I think optimism is important, because it drives change. If you don't think change for the better is possible, you're unlikely to work in that direction, and you end up with a self-limiting, self-fulfilling prophecy.

So from a purely pragmatic perspective, I think optimism works. But I also think optimism is true. We can make things better. We can fix problems. And specifically for the context of this blog, we can improve the way we lead system development projects.

That just might be the whole point of everything I write...