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Oliver Burkeman

Turning Towards Failure

Our resistance to thinking about failure is especially curious in light of the fact that failure is so ubiquitous. ‘Failure is the distinguishing feature of corporate life,’ writes the economist Paul …

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Goal Induced Blindness

In 1996 a disaster of historic proportions happened at the peak of Mount Everest. In the entire climbing season of 1996, fifteen climbers died. Eight of those deaths took place on a single day. …

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Oliver Burkeman: The Power of Negative Thinking

“Think Positive.” That’s what magazines and friends advise us to do in order to cope with the stress of the holiday season. That’s the same advice that Norman Vincent Peale, …

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The Power of Negative Thinking

An insightful piece by Oliver Burkeman on the folly of the all-positive thinking movement and its rejection of the possibility of failure. “The psychological evidence, backed by ancient wisdom, …

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