Burkeman is a journalist running a popular weekly column in The Guardian and online, and is a winner of the Foreign Press Association's Young Journalist of the Year award. He is the author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking (2012), which explores the upsides of negativity, uncertainty, failure and imperfection. 

 

Currently based in New York, Burkeman investigates routes to mental wellbeing in a popular weekly online column in The Guardian called ‘This Column Will Change Your Life’ writing about social psychology, the self-help culture, productivity and the science of happiness. This formed the basis of his 2011 book, Help! How To Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian US, Esquire and Slate.

 

In his witty and eye-opening talk, Burkeman dismantles key myths of positive thinking, and reveals a far more powerful alternative. Drawing on wisdom from the ancient Stoics and Buddhists, along with cutting-edge psychology, he uncovers the forgotten benefits of turning towards uncertainty, failure, insecurity and fear as a path to lasting happiness, creativity and high performance. 

 

Based on his book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, Burkeman shares stories from his adventures among practitioners of this unconventional approach, which took him from a silent meditation retreat, via the most dangerous neighborhoods of Mexico City, to the world's largest collection of failed consumer products. He offers practical, time-tested strategies for cultivating "negative capability" to enhance happiness, innovation, and resilience, in individuals and organizations alike.