Improvable (vs. too hard to improve)

Beyond simply changing things (which may involve other ideas like fragility), this belief concerns whether or not most things and situations are responsive to our efforts to make them better. The opposite view holds that the world is rigid, inflexible, and unresponsive to efforts to improve it.

The world stands really malleable, waiting to receive its final touches at our hands. 

— William James, Pragmatism, 1907

Improvable is most related to the big-three primal Enticing. This suggests that control may be less important for feeling safe and more important for feeling engaged and having a sense of meaning.

Improvable was found to be one of three primals related to resilience. In two studies from 2025 examining people who experienced violence or illness, people who saw the world as more improvable at baseline tended to experience less negative psychological impacts after the negative life event than those who saw the world as fixed.

But it’s too late to make any improvements now. The universe is finished.

 — Ishmael, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851

After all, if something bad happens and you think the world is too difficult to improve, there’s no changing it.

Interestingly, in another 2025 study of cancer patients summarized in this Psychology Today article, seeing the world as more Improvable was related to being more likely to choose palliative care treatment. Though palliative care may seem to some like “giving up”, it often is full of hope that normalcy and even enjoyment can still be found while managing chronic or terminal illness.

The research suggests that Improvable as a key component of resilence, though more research remains to be done.

Photo: Ella Sy