What we’re reading: The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman

Why you should read it: Oliver Burkeman’s The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking is a clear-eyed guide to being. Burkeman turns the positive thinking movement on it’s head and explores what we can learn about happiness from Stoics, Buddhists, insecurity and death.

“As Seneca frequently observes, we habitually act as if our control over the world were much greater than it really is. Even such personal matters as our health, our finances, and our reputations are ultimately beyond our control; we can try to influence them, of course, but frequently things won’t go our way. And the behaviour of other people is even further beyond our control. For most conventional notions of happiness – which consist in making things the way you want them to be – this poses a big problem.”
—The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, Pg 39

Read The Antidote yourself.