1051: Channeling Optimism as a Superpower with Sumit Paul-Choudhury

How to Be Awesome at Your Job

How to be Awesome at Your Job

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4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sumit Paul-Choudhury shares the science behind optimism and why it gives people an advantage in the long term.

— YOU’LL LEARN —

1) The case for optimism

2) How to train your brain to become an optimist

3) How to direct your optimism to where you need it most

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— ABOUT SUMIT —

Sumit Paul-Choudhury writes, thinks, and dreams about science, technology, and the future. A former Editor-in-Chief of New Scientist, he trained as an astrophysicist, has worked as a financial journalist, and, at the London Business School, received a Sloan Fellowship in strategy and leadership. Currently, he devotes most of his time to his creative studio Alternity, which puts the ideas in this book into scientific and artistic practice. He lives and works in London.

• Book: The Bright Side: How Optimists Change the World, and How You Can Be One

• LinkedIn: Sumit Paul-Choudhury

• Website: Alternity.com

— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW —

• App: Roam Research

• Book: Candide by Voltaire

• Past episode: 992: How to Break Free from Cynicism and Reclaim Hope with Jamil Zaki

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Transcript

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0:00.0	People who score as more strongly optimistic seem to have better lives in many respects.
0:14.6	Longer lives, healthier lives, happier lives, and more successful lives.
0:18.9	If you kind of take every opportunity you have to advance yourself
0:22.0	and you take each of those individually with an optimistic stance,
0:25.5	that's what tends to pan out over the long term
0:27.5	because, sure, you'll be wrong sometimes,
0:29.5	and some things won't work out.
0:31.1	But sometimes they do, and over time that accumulates.
0:34.8	Optimism is about targeting.
0:36.3	It's not just about being relentlessly sunshiny.
0:39.0	It's about choosing where you want to increase your ability to see that brighter
0:42.4	future.
0:51.0	That's Schumet Paul Chowdhury.
0:53.0	He's the former editor-in-chief of new scientists and trained as an astrophysicist, worked as a financial journalist, and at the London Business School, received a Sloan Fellowship in Strategy and Leadership.
1:03.3	His new book, The Bright Side, How Optimists Change the World and How You Can Be One, shares the power of optimism and how you can harness it to turn your
1:11.7	biggest setbacks into opportunities for long-term success. So you'll learn one, the case for
1:17.1	optimism, two, how to train your brain to become an optimist, and three, how to direct your optimism
1:22.7	to where you need it most. And if you want a quick summary write-up of these actionable takeaways,
1:27.0	I recommend you sign up for the free Gold Nugget Email newsletter at Awesome at Your Job.com. I'm Pete McItis.
1:33.5	This is How to Be Awesome at Your Job. And now, here's Schumet.
1:40.3	Schumet, welcome. Hi. Glad to be here. Well, I'm feeling optimistic about this interview.
1:45.2	Me too, hopefully. I would like to kick it off. You've got a pretty dramatic story in terms of
	...

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