Perils of Positive thinking

I was reading through the new entries in some of my favorite BLOGs and I came across this post:
     http://hodu.com/perils.shtml

A couple of snippets :
A young accountant approached her retired mentor one day and asked very expectantly how she managed such a successful career.

This answer was surprisingly brief: "Good decisions". In anticipation she launched the next question: "But how can I learn to make good decisions?" The wise mentor paused for a moment and replied: "Through experience!"

Again the eager accountant asked: "But how do I gain experience?" Her mentor smiled understandingly: "Through bad decisions!"

And

The second scenario involves the friend or colleague that is a single-minded positive thinker.

The more that you try to verbalize the problem in order to feel better, the more you get interrupted with "positive solutions". The more you crave empathy, the more they inject you with the importance of positive thinking. It leaves you feeling even more dejected and riddled with guilt about your inability to think positively during this trying time.


I have been guilty of this second situation when although my intentions have been sincere, but now in retrospective, it seems that some situations demand understanding and compassion rather than solutions to the problem.