I’m reading Disrupted by Dan Lyons and loving it. He’s ridiculing the “peppy, effervescent, relentlessly positive, incredibly hubristic and overconfident attitude” at techy startups, and I feel a pang of envy. I’m in a profession where everything is great except for the environment of apocalyptic, tragic, dejected gloominess that is entirely divorced from reality. If only it got a bit more fashionable to be peppy and effervescent, I’d be very happy.
I Envy the Techies
Clarissa's Blog 
In my experience, it has always been “fashionable to be peppy and effervescent” in my field. Maybe people who are not temperamentally like this tend not to go into pure mathematics.
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Happy New Year, dear daughter! We love you!
Mom, Dad
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Happy New Year!
I thought being peppy and effervescent was a very American (and definitely Midwestern/protestant) thing. I feel people around here consider it rude to be anything but unfailingly chipper 24/7. Maybe I should befriend some folks in the humanities if there’s some chance of refreshing gloominess there! 🙂
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Here’s a related comic from SMBC:
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/epictetish
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Make sure you click on the red button for an extra panel.
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