To quote the late great Christopher Hitchens in introducing his autobiography, Hitch-22, “The most intense wars are civil wars, just as the most vivid and rending personal conflicts are internal ones, and what I hope to do now is give some idea of what it is like to fight on two fronts at once, to try and keep opposing ideas alive in the same mind, even occasionally to show two faces at the same time.” From the personal to the political, and the intersection of the two, why do we find it so difficult to keep opposing ideas alive in the same mind?

Perhaps like Impressionism before it, political correctness will be a useful, neutral shorthand for a way of seeing the world. Until then, it’s a insult thrown across Xmas dinner tables and in the opinion pages of The Australian. ‘You’re just being politically correct’ pointedly suggests that a view is being parroted, that is it not honestly held. Why are attempts, no doubt in my case faltering and inexpertly argued, assumed to be disingenuous? What does this do except reinforce an underlying idea that bigotry, or the ugly aspects of the Id, are not only raw but somehow better for being honest?

Climate change and the arts are two prime examples of areas where seems difficult to apply this metric-based approach. I am curious about alternatives. What if everyone had a smartphone? Could we something radically different emerge?

I want to teach my 2 boys why this matters, so they can be feminists too.

People have great ideas all the time- how to help those in need, starting with providing water where there is none, sanitary and hygiene products where they are lacking, food and shelter to those without… but do politicians ever change? We keep electing and fostering a system where the greediest are given the role of decision makers… why is that?

The question that has been lingering over our heads for centuries. The age old question of whether tomato sauce belongs in the fridge, or in the pantry.

I saw graffiti on a wall showing two characters arguing with each other. One said, ‘Question Everything!’ The other said, ‘Why?’
I was introduced to a body of work on cognitive style that highlights 40 years of research on the predictable differences in the way people think. People do not think alike yet can anyone suggest any management strategies in any organisation or in society that recognizes these differences and allows for different styles of thinkers to thrive? I have asked this question for ten years and found just one organisation that shaped approaches for different style of thinkers. The cost to organisations and societies for not recognizing these predicable differences is tremendous. You see it in our cliches. For some, seeing the glass as half full is positive. For others it is negative as you fail to see that the glass as twice the potential. As such, seeing the glass as half empty is positive as you twice the potential. Yet society thinks seeing the glass as half full is seen as positive; it can also be seen as accepting the mediocrity of the status quo.

New parent myself – but more importantly in light of the Syrian refugees placing their children in scary waters in the hope of providing their children a better life in Europe.

It seems to be a common pattern, and one that creates waste.