True quote from page 320 of Contracts -- "actor" in this case meaning any party in a contract:
"[A]ctors are unrealistically optimistic as a systematic matter. (Lawyers do not realize this, because they are trained to be systematically pessimistic.) ... For example, the subjects correctly estimated that fifty percent of American couples will eventually divorce. In contrast, the subjects estimated that their own chance of divorce was zero."
I don't believe it. About the pessimism I mean. All my law professors are pretty happy people. Just today two of them brought out a couple student volunteers, a trumpet, a bass and a piano. One professor sang some revised lyrics to "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" based on the Papachristou v. Jacksonville case while the other one? Yup. He juggled.
2 comments:
Our class was delighted when a visiting BYU professor walked into class and wrote F*** on the board. It filled the board, and he left it there throughout class. When someone asked, he said it was just so nice to have free speech back this semester (summer).
We decided your professors are far cooler than ours. Your post confirms the suspicions.
Lawyers are systematically pessimistic about risk taking. Especially professors, not much risk in the classroom. I had a professor who boasted that he would literally have to stab one of us with a knife to lose his job (like the last professor who got fired).
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