Positivity is a good thing – unless you’re a jaded hack

Having spent my adult life employed at newspapers and, more recently, academic institutions, my experience of workplace culture has revolved around existential anxiety. Both journalism and higher education have been ever more squeezed in recent years, and both hacks and academics are rather good at (and enjoy) constructing grim narratives about future prospects.

So my foray last week into tech start-up culture was fascinating; everywhere I looked there was money, positivity, up-beat slogans and, even weirder, the idea that the onwards march of digital technology is just brilliant.

The occasion was the UK launch of an Israeli adult education start-up called Jolt, which calls itself a “school for your career” and offers lectures in all manner of modern workplace skills, from public speaking to coding. This concept is called “stackable learning”.

The CEO, Roei Deutsch – already on Forbes’s list of star entrepreneurs under 30 – wants to displace, among other things, the traditional MBA. He is already doing so very successfully in Israel and has high hopes for global expansion.

I was sceptical about the concept. The barrage of statistics confirming the uselessness of traditional degrees for the 21st-century workplace left me cold. Apparently, 76per cent of millennials say they want to partake in learning once a week – but, I found myself huffing, couldn’t they just pick up a book and get on with it?

But the launch turned out to be a breath of fresh air. Nobody was worrying about running out of money; you couldn’t move for posh canapés and cocktails. Tuna tataki, sushi, good wine, and an inordinate number of sharply dressed young people all provided a glimpse into another world.

I was momentarily jealous, and began picturing a glamorous career in tech. But the truth is all that cut-throat positivity isn’t for me, no matter how good the canapés – or “stackable” the riches.