Discussion on:

Do you just hate everything?

positive thinker = paedo ?
Even I wouldn't go that far...

If anyone marks you down, it wasn't me.

Lawyers, for instance make poor business people. They always see the problems and can never judge the risk.

He's not saying suppress negative feedback, that is as important as any including positive feedback, that is as long as it is constructive.

The point is if you are "habitually" negative in a non constructive way. The phrase that really defines it is, "Some people confuse negativity with superior intelligence, as in 'I am cognitively able to find the hole in every plan.'" We all know someone like that. If you find yourself not able to be positive about anything then perhaps you are one too.

If you are a professional often time it's part of your job to find the downside in an endeavour. If you do that to make things better then you are doing your job, if you are doing it to tear things down your not.

The emphasis here of course is on hating everything. Being critical of bad decisions and bad choices, like using MS Access for a business solution or heavy artillery in muddy conditions, isn't necessarily being negative. Playing devils advocate in a group decision making process can be a good way to ensure the problem and potential solution has been properly thought through. Of course there will always be those people who dont appreciate any kind of non-positive input. Playing devil's advocate in every instance and voicing only the negative is something which should be avoided.

When asked what is my biggest challenge at work, my response is always 'being positive in a negative environment'. As the IT Janitor no one calls me when things are going fine, and when building solutions as part of a large diverse team I frequently encounter inexperience and a shallow depth of knowledge (and sometimes its me). It's hard to remain positive when the people who seek my help and input frequently use that interaction as an opportunity to complain about the difficult task theyve been set, their lousy job, and their lousy boss. It would be so very easy to get caught up in that negative spiral and not even notice that seeing and communicating a negative response has become your default response to everything.

My colleague pointed out that I was being seen as a negative person; to the point the boss may be considering keeping me part of the team. It was because I was pointing out the 'obvious' flaws in the proposed solutions.
Once I had the insight that my method of delivery was flawed, I changed to show I was 'on board' and THEN found subtle ways of bringing in questions about the project.
It seemed to work and was a lot more constructive.