> I, on the other hand, am much more willing to trust in a beneficial outcome.

I think a lot of that has to do with how you view the potential of a 'negative' or 'undesirable' outcome. I've noted that people who feel the need to exert utter control are typically driven by a fear that a situation will not turn out the way they expected; and that fear is caused by believing that the expected outcome is likely to be better than any unexpected outcome.

Those of us who are more opportunistic tend to be more optmistic (assume an unplanned outcome will be at least as good as the expected one), and tend to view the unexepected with a different attitude. The attitude of which I speak is best summed up in an old Chinese tale (my apologies, I'm summarizing from memory)⁰:

An old man and his son lived together on a farm, and they were not wealthy. One day, their only horse broke out of the stable and ran away. A neighbor stopped by to offer his condolances, saying "It is so terrible for you, that your only horse ran away."

The old man smiled and said "how do you know it is so bad?", and the neighbor walked away shaking his head.

In the night, the lost horse returned, and with her an entire herd, which the old man and his son were able to capture. In the morning, the neighbor was passing by and saw the great herd of horses. When the old man told the story of the horses' capture, the neighbor said, "aha! I see now that it was very good that your horse broke free!".

The old man gazed calmly at the neighbor and said only "how do you know it is so good?" The neighbor left once again, muttering about the old man's lack of joy.

A few days later, the son was breaking one of the new horses. He fell from the horse and broke his arm. The neighbor heard, and rushed over to offer his condolances. "I see now why you were cautious about calling your new wealth good fortune," he said. "This is terrible -- how will your fields be plowed when your son cannot tend them?"

The old man smiled and said, "how do you know it will be so bad?" The neighbor scoffed at the old man, and cursed his ignorance.

Later that day, however, the local lord's army came through the town, and pressed every able-bodied man into service. The son was spared, as he could not fight with a broken arm.

When the neighbor observed this, he was enlightened.

I think the more opportunistic tend to take the old man's view and wait to see what a particular outcome will bring, rather than assuming it will be bad (or good, even). I personally think it is the better of the two approaches -- though there is certainly something to be said for appropriate planning and consideration -- because it allows one to react to changes and make the best of any situation.

From a programming perspective, that results in code that is more flexible. By flexible, I mean that it is easy to alter when requirements change, and easy to build upon. The latter of those makes reusability easier, as well.

0: If anyone knows this story, and can point me to complete translation of it -- or at least tell me its common name and/or attributed author -- I would be most grateful

Update=> dragonchild kindly referred me to The Lost Horse, which appears to be a much more concise version of the above tale, and an actual translation thereof. Thank you, dragonchild.