#55: Oliver Burkeman on the Positive Power of Negative Thinking

Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below.

By day I help manage a small business, and for my job I attended an industry conference in Las Vegas last year. At one point during the conference, the Chariots of Fire theme music was played as a group of top-ranked managers took to the stage. In my view, the Chariots of Fire theme music should only be played if it’s 1924, and a group of strapping young men in white athletic gear are actually running along a beach. In other words, I don’t react well to events that are explicitly ‘motivational.’

So, when Oliver Burkeman’s new book, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinkingwas released, I devoured it in one sitting. It struck me as a book that would be of particular interest to Work Stew’s readers and listeners, so I requested an interview. I spoke with Burkeman just a day before the start of his multi-city book tour that will include stops in Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Denver and Boston.

About Oliver Burkeman: Burkeman is a writer for The Guardian based in Brooklyn, New York. His new book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking explores the upsides of negativity, uncertainty, failure, and imperfection. Each week in This Column Will Change Your Life he writes about social psychology, self-help culture, productivity, and the science of happiness. He also blogs for Guardian US and writes a monthly column for Psychologies magazine.

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