“Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world”—Leonardo Da Vinci Da Vinci was on to something. A picture is worth a thousand words. And multi-lingual. But more than that. Randomly scribble on a piece of paper and ask someone to tell you what they see, and they …
Listening in to Plunkett
James Plunkett was recently appointed Chief Practices Officer at Nesta with the Behavioural Insights Team.Nesta is a UK innovation agency for social good: We design, test and scale new solutions to society’s biggest problems, changing millions of lives for the better. That’s pretty ambitious! And interesting… So what is the Behavioural Insights Team?At BIT we improve …
Plastic Pollution?
Our Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, was on the radio this morning, having just returned from an international meeting to see if there could be global agreement on eliminating plastic pollution. I had almost forgotten that I had written a song about this, fifty or so years ago. It was inspired by a speech by environmentalist …
The Power of Good Arguments: Why You Should Care About Logic and Evidence
There is no escaping the rallying calls of different viewpoints in today’s society; each offers its unique perspective with promises of being true and correct. However, not every argument is created equal some possess greater value than others. Good arguments are those built upon facts and logical reasoning, while bad ones rely on emotional tugs …
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Father Bob
I did not know Fr Bob Maguire. I never met him.But when a State Funeral was offered for him, I immediately made plans to go. I wanted to honour him; and particularly his absolute commitment to the poor and needy. On the way to St Patrick’s cathedral yesterday morning, the irony of a memorial service …
The Lost Antidote
Have you stopped watching the TV News? Are you, like me, getting exhausted by the reports of crisis upon crisis at home and across the world; or fed up with the superficiality of banal police reports of crime and car crashes? Are you as perplexed as I about the obscene gap between rich and poor, …
Your Strongest Beliefs May Not Be True!
We live in a world where the strength of a belief is often taken as the measure of its truth. We have become so accustomed to believing in something with such conviction that we forget that our views might not always reflect reality. This is especially true regarding beliefs about us and others and those …
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Do We Need Evil?
The 7 O’clock News this morning had me jumping straight out of bed and heading to my computer. The Avalon Airshow is on again after Covid. Almost 800 companies are taking part in Avalon 2023, which organisers say will be the biggest in the 30-year history of the event. “This year, there will be 56 …
Compulsion
So we are in the season of Lent. If Lent is about giving things up (which some people seem to think it is), here is a list I spotted in a friend’s blog that gives me pause for thought! “The compulsive pursuit of perfection becomes impatient with weakness, angry and judgmental. The compulsive pursuit of compassion becomes swamping and …
How to make better mistakes
I’ve made so many mistakes in my life that I have lost count of them. I used to feel bad when I made mistakes. I’d (metaphorically) beat myself over the head when I did. I’d engage in obsessive apologetic behaviour. I’d tell myself off and make repeated commitments not to make any more mistakes. Some …