The Antidote Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman

BATB score: 6/10 💭

started out very interesting and then deteriorated with every succeeding chapters; better to read Oliver Burkeman’s more recent masterpiece BATB 9/10 ‘Four Thousand Weeks’ 2021

Best as: key premise - when you expect the worst, you are more calm when the worst actually happen; thus maybe it is better to live with negative thinking and stop forcing positive thinking (because who are you? teletubbies?!)

Best for: you know how the book “The Secret” claimed that when you think of positivity, the world’s law of attraction, pulls in positivity? This book is trying to say, yo wait, no one can actually control the world; so if you function better with negativity, keep at it! Faking positivity, just makes you fake.

BATB lingering thought: actually I like negativity, makes me feel more grateful and alive

Best to: ‘future’ noun that period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured (dream on);

‘kakorrhaphiophobia’ noun the fear of failure (vs a negative person would have embraced failure more beautifully)

Best quotes: “Happiness reached via positive thinking can be fleeting and brittle; negative visualization generates a vastly more dependable calm.”

“If you accept that the universe is uncontrollable, you’re going to be a lot less anxious.”

“Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and get to work.”

“The truth that many people never understand is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt.”