Media Kit

The Cost of Compassion:

‘I was drawn to ordinary Australians whose lives radiated compassion. They were on my radar. Something in their understated yet burning passion to serve the vulnerable struck me as the highest calling. I now recognise that their compassion left an indelible imprint on my life.’

‘Compassion as a universal resource has remained an enigma. If compassion is so treasured, why is there still such conflict, inequality, and suffering in our world?’

‘Why do the self-sufficient and well-off show such anaemic compassion levels? Why the compassion fatigue? How deep do the roots of our compassion really go? How can we become more compassionate? And do we really want to?’

‘Compassion is not a luxury for when the economy is booming and we have something to spare for those who aren’t doing so well. It is foundational to how we organise society … Do we live in a web of mutual dependence and connection, or in a race to secure what limited resources there are for me and mine?’

’Yet human frailty and vulnerability is universal. Everybody needs compassion, and everybody has the capacity to give it. It must be a two-way street.’

The Pleasures of Pessimism:

‘It is characteristic of our cultural moment that, while everyone will readily concede that things are going wrong, nobody agrees on which things, or how wrong. Progressives and conservatives, religious believers and secularists, boomers and millennials project mutually incompatible apocalypses. We disagree on who’s to blame and what to do about it. We disagree on whether our forebears had it better or worse, and whether they were tougher than us.’

‘The menu of apocalyptic snacks and side dishes is endless: IQ rates are falling in developed countries. Our indoor, sedentary lifestyle is killing us. Weapons of Math Destruction – big data – are increasing inequality and destroying democracy. Cancel culture is coming for all of us. Millennials bring their mums to job interviews. Smartphones may have destroyed a generation. Tinder is the dating apocalypse.’

‘On the whole, I’m pessimistic about pessimism. My instinct is that it is not serving us well – and that it threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.’

‘I believe that hope is not something I need to trick myself into, but the deep logic of the universe in which we live.’

The End of Thinking?:

‘For all the education we receive, most adults never think about their thinking. Like breathing or walking, thinking seems to be an assumed skill that, achieved once, rarely needs revisiting. ‘

‘The point here isn’t that any adult ever stops learning about new subjects, facts, or opinions. Gluten-free baking, bitcoin investment, systemic racism, climate change – the modern self is constantly stimulated by new ideas. The point is, do we know how to think well about all this new information? Do we appreciate it when someone asks hard questions of our opinions? Do we care about finding truth, or just being seen to be right?’

‘This little book aims to help you think. It won’t give you many answers, but it might help you ask better questions. However, the goal is a touch more ambitious than that. My larger aim is to help you become a better person who uses your thinking to serve other people.’

Thinking is a deeply human activity, and the way we go about it reveals much about our character. And thinking happens everywhere, not just in classroom or lecture hall. I’m aiming at the conversation in the cafe, the discussion in your boardroom, the late-night chat with your teenage daughter. Because you are always thinking. And that means we need to consider the ‘you’ who is doing the thinking.

‘Our voice matters, but when I raise my voice, it means taking responsibility. A mind can be an instrument for love or a weapon for wounding. Choose love.’

Achievement Addiction:

"The human is basically a bundle of achievements, or an ATAR on legs, if you’re at school. In which case, spare a thought for the young people who don’t rate highly according to scholastic measures of achievement.”

"If a number is going to be affixed to your name, and that number is indexed to monetary rewards, the esteem of others, and your self-satisfaction, then it makes sense to work, work, and work to best position yourself for your future success."

“Life as an achievement addict is not all pain. There’s also a sick delight in being so hardcore."

“It’s hard to remember that we’re all part of the same human team when some players (so to speak) get a louder roar from the crowd than others. Currently, our achievement-obsessed culture tends to single out the clever and the credentialled for praise and high pay, which makes it harder for those of us with different abilities and experience to be recognised. Which, by the way, is not a sentimental argument for everyone to get a trophy, or to deny people proper recognition for their achievements. It makes sense to reward talent and effort, and to seek the best, most qualified candidates to fulfil the most demanding roles. But when one measure of human value is so prevalent, it’s easy to forget that there is no single scale of human worth.”