Once, years ago, when mother asked me how I was, I said "not bad". I was lambasted for being negative and coming across as negative and saying negative things which make people think negative things about me. I learned from that and I haven't ever said "not bad" or anything that could be construed as negative since then.
This morning, amongst all the usual pleasantries, I got the following responses from various people to my question of "how are you?":