Once I heard a debate about fantasy literature, how culture impacts the world building.
In Western fantasy -- think Tolkien's Middle Earth -- you have the good kingdom on one end of the map (their backs are protected by the ocean, they only have to fight on one front), the evil kingdom is on the other side of the map, the heroes fight and despite all the complications they ultimately win.
In Eastern European fantasy -- think Sapkowski's Witcher -- you have the more-or-less good kingdom in the middle, surrounded by evil kingdoms (often much larger) on all sides; victory is impossible, the heroes fight to survive yet another day, and they consider themselves lucky when they do.
I would add that in Russian fantasy -- think Lukyanenko's Night Watch -- the balance between good and evil is considered a fact of life and no one even tries to change it anymore, both live in the same kingdom; the good guys only wake up when the balance seems to shift too much on the side of evil.
So yeah, culture has an unconscious impact on optimism / pesimism.
I'd be careful drawing conclusions on this basis, as it's really easy to cherry-pick examples to support any kind of narrative you like. The West has written its share of dystopias and there are a lot of happy endings in Russian fairy tales.
It would be interesting to do a proper comparison -- e.g. between a compendium of Russian fairy tales and something like the Brother Grimm's collection of German fairy tales. The German fairy tales might well turn out to be darker.
Some of us enjoy being sidekicks.
Some of us would like to meet sidekicks in potential, see how the interaction goes, and have sidekicks.
Last time I tried posting about sidekick matchmaking here, it turned out to be very valuable for me, but not for many people (I think only two pairs of sidekick were created as a result). Now, once again I'd like to find someone who enjoys that role to help me out with many projects.
I'm looking for suggestions on how to get people together to do that. For the time being, if someone needs a sidekick or wants to be one, post about it in the comment section. I'd love to see a permanent solution for this information spreading problem.
My experience with Sidekicks
I'm not sure what Anna and Nick thought of their sidekicks, but my experience was undeniably positive. Having a sidekick was motivating, saved me great time, and, most importantly, felt like I got a surge of muscle strength specifically in the types of tasks I'm particularly inept at.
By contrast, my experience with people hired to help was mixed (virtual assistants) or negative (personal assistant).
Use the comment section to either offer or request sidekicks, explaining a little more about you and what you'd like this partnership to mean