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RSA ANIMATE: Smile or Die

Royal Society of Arts · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Psychology & human behaviorSocial issues & cultureMacroeconomics & financial crises

What it is

An RSA Animate drawing of Barbara Ehrenreich's talk on the darker side of positive thinking. It argues that forced positivity in culture, work and policy can be harmful and played a part in the financial crisis.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN uses it as a go-to short critique of mandatory positivity in workplaces, startups and corporate culture.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2011, last 2022

What HN commenters said

  1. “I strongly recommend you to watch Smile or Die, a talk by Barbara Ehrenreich.”

    Ehrenreich on delusional positivity culture

    alecco, 2014-12 · Strong recommendation · in “Negative comments”

  2. “for a much better summary of the problem”

    Critique of excessive positive thinking

    MostAwesomeDude, 2011-07 · Recommendation · in “Dealing With (Not Dealing With) the Open Source Assholes”

  3. “Watch this”

    Argues against forced positivity toward suffering

    ak39, 2012-12 · Recommendation · in “Apple - Think Twice”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: positive thinking, barbara ehrenreich, workplace culture, rsa animate, psychology

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