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A review by itsnkbitch
The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman
5.0
Contents
1. On Trying Too Hard to Be Happy
2. What Would Seneca Do? The Stoic Art of Confronting the Worst-Case Scenario
3. The Storm Before the Calm: A Buddhist Guide to Not Thinking Positively
4. Goal Crazy: When Trying to Control the Future Doesn't Work
5. Who's There? How to Get Over Your Self
6. The Safety Catch: The Hidden Benefits of Insecurity
7. The Museum of Failure: The Case for Embracing Your Errors
8. Memento Mori: Death as a Way of Life
Epilogue: Negative Capability
The message in brief: The answer isn't Optimism or Pessimism. It is Peace with whatever Life handles you. It does not matter if you delude yourself with positive visualization or not. Death and failure will still break through your door. So you might as well answer.
This is a philosophy I already live my life with. But in a retarded ignorant sense. This book is far more intelligent then anything I have every said about the way I perceive the world. It gives a completely rounded deconstruction of everything that's wrong with the self-help industry, positive visualization, optimism (and even pessimism), and even happiness itself. All with a soft casual and funny! tone even when discussing the most grave or philosophical concepts.
I also especially appreciated the Atheism because mystical bullshit is such a normalcy in the self-help industry. Intentionally or not, this adds an extra potency to his deconstruction of the self-help industry.
A well written book that fully discusses an interesting theory? Sounds like a favorite to me.
1. On Trying Too Hard to Be Happy
2. What Would Seneca Do? The Stoic Art of Confronting the Worst-Case Scenario
3. The Storm Before the Calm: A Buddhist Guide to Not Thinking Positively
4. Goal Crazy: When Trying to Control the Future Doesn't Work
5. Who's There? How to Get Over Your Self
6. The Safety Catch: The Hidden Benefits of Insecurity
7. The Museum of Failure: The Case for Embracing Your Errors
8. Memento Mori: Death as a Way of Life
Epilogue: Negative Capability
The message in brief: The answer isn't Optimism or Pessimism. It is Peace with whatever Life handles you. It does not matter if you delude yourself with positive visualization or not. Death and failure will still break through your door. So you might as well answer.
This is a philosophy I already live my life with. But in a retarded ignorant sense. This book is far more intelligent then anything I have every said about the way I perceive the world. It gives a completely rounded deconstruction of everything that's wrong with the self-help industry, positive visualization, optimism (and even pessimism), and even happiness itself. All with a soft casual and funny! tone even when discussing the most grave or philosophical concepts.
I also especially appreciated the Atheism because mystical bullshit is such a normalcy in the self-help industry. Intentionally or not, this adds an extra potency to his deconstruction of the self-help industry.
A well written book that fully discusses an interesting theory? Sounds like a favorite to me.