Sometimes people (myself included) confuse truth-seeking with various other lenses. Truth-seeking is not optimism nor is it pessimism. It is not skewing the results to fit your world view nor overlaying your own beliefs over the real world. Truth-seeking, rather, is doing your best to uncover reality in a raw state and interpret the facts.
People often see truth-seekers as cynics – people just trying to make others upset by holding a negative stance on a situation. That is not what this is all about! The truth-seeker provides a view of reality and in exchange often frustrates others for showing them glimpses of the truth. The truth hurts!! The truth is hard to swallow!! It is far easier to run away and convince yourself that reality is skewed in your favor.
Truth seeking is not optimism. Sometimes the numbers just look good! And, in fact often, the world is indeed quite good. It does not take an optimist to judge reality, it takes a realist!