The Bright Side by Sumit Paul-Choudhury review – harnessing the power of positive thinking
In the final episode of Welcome to Wrexham’s third series, football club director Shaun Harvey tells viewers: “We’ve got positivity on our side.” Optimism certainly seems to have propelled his team to some greatness, but is that always the case? Is thinking positively about an unpredictable future always the right choice?
That’s the central question behind Sumit Paul-Choudhury’s new volume. Not another book on positivity, I hear you cry. Norman Vincent Peale’s bestseller The Power of Positive Thinking set the stage for this field in 1952. Many others followed. Most recently, Roxie Nafousi’s Manifest takes a self-help approach to the subject, teaching readers how to think more positively to shape their future. And with more than 1m copies sold, it is clear that our appetite for optimism endures.
What, then, is Paul-Choudhury bringing to the table? Where Peale leans on spirituality and Nafousi draws on practical experience, Paul-Choudhury uses his journalistic background to weave in stories from history, literature, philosophy and science.
To not embrace optimism for your future feels, quite simply, like a waste of precious time
The author introduces himself as an optimist, only realising this fact in the wake of his wife’s sudden death from an aggressive form of ovarian cancer. To feel optimistic at such a time might sound strange – the delusions of a grieving widower, perhaps. If that is so then, reader, I must also count myself deluded, because Paul-Choudhury’s turn to the bright side matches my own behaviour after losing a loved one. Grief presents a gift: the sharp and ever-present reminder that life can be short and unpredictable. To not embrace optimism for your future feels, quite simply, like a waste of precious time.
In fact, when it comes to imagining our future, we are all a little delusional, says Paul-Choudhury. We overestimate how exceptional we are, we underestimate our mortality and we expect holidays will be more fun than they turn out to be. Predicting the future is inherently difficult. Yet Paul-Choudhury argues that even in the face of an uncertain path, learning how to think about the future is better than sleepwalking into disaster.
Through careful exploration spanning subjects from ancient mythology to quantum physics, he examines the different types of optimism and when it is appropriate to use them. No one wants an air traffic controller to be relying on positive thinking; mental positivity wasn’t going to make Covid disappear; blind optimism doesn’t cure an aggressive cancer. Yet learn to use the right kind of positive thinking – Paul-Choudhury calls it dispositional optimism, a general expectation that things will work out well – and you can create a better world.
His argument is divided into three parts. The first offers an engaging, if slightly disjointed romp through the science and psychology of optimism, where it comes from, why it is so easy to be drawn into pessimism traps and how we can teach ourselves to look on the bright side. There is much to be learned from reappraising our past and rethinking how we approach our future.
Thinking positively about our future is not a naive individual pursuit but a powerful shared duty
The author is an astrophysicist by training, but don’t be fooled into thinking this is a pop science book. After substantive lessons in the various flavours of optimism, Paul-Choudhury delves deep into the far weightier topics of philosophy, politics, ancient history and religion, considering why the world contains bad things, whether we can learn anything from our history and if it’s even possible to control our future.
This is not for the faint-hearted. Paul-Choudhury calls himself an “easily distracted neophile”, which may explain the book’s eclectic patchwork of ideas. One moment we are hearing stories of ancient deities, the next diving into the block universe where time no longer moves forward. Through short, discrete essays, we hear messages of warning and hope from a vast cast of writers, theorists and activists. While this does ultimately come together, a little more handholding might have smoothed the journey.
That said, it is a journey worth taking. The Bright Side is an expansive tour de force that, despite some structural hurdles, ultimately achieves its goal: to help readers understand what drives us to imbue ourselves with optimism and how to use it to create a better future. It is at its best when Paul-Choudhury’s own voice shines through – he is witty, empathetic and a beautiful writer.
So whether you’re entering the new year convinced that Wrexham will reach even loftier heights, or you’re struggling to stay optimistic about the future state of the planet, this book offers a message of hope. It reminds us that there are many possible pathways to be taken and that thinking positively about our future is not a naive individual pursuit but a powerful shared duty. We’re born optimists, Paul-Choudhury argues; if you’re no longer one, this title will give you a way back – and a lot more besides.
Helen Thomson is a science journalist and author of Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World’s Strangest Brains (John Murray Press, £10.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
The Bright Side: Why Optimists Have the Power to Change the World by Sumit Paul-Choudhury is published by Canongate (£20). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
