Comments to my colleagues, from Brian Martin

These comments were sent to my colleagues at the University of Wollongong. For subsequent comments, see my blog.

"More exercise, please", March 2014: a comment on Jordan D. Metzl's books The exercise cure and The athlete's book of home remedies

"Insults and what to do about them", September 2013: a comment on William B. Irvine's book A slap in the face

"Getting their attention - and yours", August 2013: a comment on Cathy N. Davidson's book Now you see it

"Learning and practising", May 2013: a comment on Thomas M. Sterner's book The practicing mind

"Disgusting!", May 2013: a comment on Rachel Herz's book That's disgusting: unraveling the mysteries of repulsion

"On doing it perfectly", April 2013: a comment on Jeff Szymanski's book The perfectionist's handbook

"Change: how to make it easy", April 2013: a comment on Chip Heath and Dan Heath's book Switch

"The all-administrative uni?", February 2013: a comment on Benjamin Ginsberg's book The fall of the faculty: the rise of the all-administrative university and why it matters

"Sticky ideas", February 2013: a comment on Chip Heath and Dan Heath's book Made to stick

"The importance of habits", February 2013: a comment about Charles Duhigg's book The power of habit

"Too much testing?", January 2013: a comment about the book Overdiagnosed by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa M. Schwartz and Steven Woloshin

"How wacky is academia?", December 2012: a comment about Richard Hil's book Whackademia

"Looking for a good boss", December 2012: a comment about Robert I. Sutton's book Good boss, bad boss

"Psychopaths: not all bad?", November 2012: a comment about Kevin Dutton's book The wisdom of psychopaths

"The future of lectures", October 2012: a comment about university lecturing in an age of abundant online lectures

"Open access and you", September 2012: a comment about David W. Lewis' article "The inevitability of open access"

"How we think", August 2012: a comment about Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking, fast and slow

"Lying and cheating", August 2012: a comment about Dan Ariely's book The (honest) truth about dishonesty

"Nerves of plastic", July 2012: a comment about Taylor Clark's book Nerve

"The myth of talent", June 2012: a comment about Matthew Syed's book Bounce

"Willpower", May 2012: a comment about Roy Baumeister and John Tierney's book Willpower

"When work becomes life", February 2012: a comment about Melissa Gregg's book Work's intimacy

"Performing under pressure", January 2012: a comment about Sian Beilock's book Choke

"People's irrationality - and its benefits", December 2011: a comment about Dan Ariely's book The upside of irrationality

"Casual exploitation", December 2011: a comment about the book Academic apartheid edited by Sylvia M. DeSantis

"When common sense goes wrong", October 2011: a comment about Duncan J. Watts' book Everything is obvious

"Virtual personalities?", October 2011: a comment about Elias Aboujaoude's book Virtually you

"On the nature of consciousness", September 2011: a comment about Pim Lommel's book Consciousness beyond life

"Wisdom training?", July 2011: a comment about Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe's book Practical wisdom

"On becoming talented", April 2011: a comment about David Shenk's book The genius in all of us

"When we make mistakes", February 2011: a comment about Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson's book Mistakes were made (but not by me)

"Arseholes beware!", January 2011: a comment about Robert I Sutton's book The no asshole rule

"Practice is the way", January 2011: a comment about Geoff Colvin's book Talent is overrated

"Corruption central", January 2011: a comment about Matt Taibbi's book Griftopia

"Do you feel like an impostor?", December 2010: a comment about the impostor phenomenon and academics

"University bureaucracy and resistance", November 2010: a comment about bureaucratisation of academic work and resistance to this process

"Research and market pressures", September 2010: a comment on Mathieu Albert's study about influences on the orientation of academic research

"Think - but how?", August 2010: a comment on Edward de Bono's book Think! Before it's too late

"Promoting research on nonviolent action", July 2010: report on a Wollongong workshop using open space technology

"Practical skills for scholars", March 2010: a comment about the practical skills, relevant to academic work, that I'm most glad I learned

"Dealing with disaster ", March 2010: a comment on Amanda Ripley's book The unthinkable: who survives when disaster strikes - and why

"Academic work: some things are getting better", March 2010: a comment about some improvements in academic working life

"Impeccable academic advice", February 2010: a comment on Emily Toth's book Ms. Mentor's new and ever more impeccable advice for women and men in academia

"Getting the nudge", January 2010: a comment on Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein's book Nudge

"Learning from Soros?", October 2009: a comment on George Soros' book The new paradigm for financial markets

"The promise and perils of helping", August 2009: a comment on Edgar H Schein's book Helping: how to offer, give, and receive help

"An academic bully culture?", August 2009: a comment on Darla Twale and Barbara De Luca's book Faculty incivility: the rise of the academic bully culture and what to do about it

"What are you paying attention to?", August 2009: a comment on Winifred Gallagher's book Rapt: attention and the focused life

"Exercise your brain", June 2009: a comment on John J Ratey's book Spark: the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain

"Survive and thrive under work stress", May 2009: a comment on Salvatore R Maddi and Deborah M Khoshaba's book Resilience at work

"When organising is easy", April 2009: a comment on Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody

"Levity at work", April 2009: a comment on Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher's book The Levity Effect

"Mindless eating", October 2008: a comment on Brian Wansink's book Mindless Eating

"Get set for success", October 2008: a comment on Carol S Dweck's book Mindset

"Amazing stories of the brain", September 2008: a comment on Norman Doidge's book The Brain that Changes Itself

"Crowd wisdom", February 2008: a comment on James Surowiecki's book The Wisdom of Crowds

"Evidence-based management", November 2007: a comment on Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I Sutton's book Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-based Management

"Crossing the tracks for love", September 2007: a comment on Ruby K. Payne's book Crossing the Tracks for Love

"Academic life as a text", August 2007: a comment on Donald E. Hall's book The Academic Self

"How to become an expert", March 2007: a comment on K. Anders Ericsson et al. (eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance

"The value of optimism", January 2007: a comment on Suzanne Segerstrom's book Breaking Murphy's Law

"Predicting happiness", October 2006: a comment on Daniel Gilbert's book Stumbling on Happiness

"Understanding the life of students", September 2006: a comment on Rebekah Nathan's book My Freshman Year

"Strengthening your mind", January 2006: a comment on Elkhonon Goldberg's book The Wisdom Paradox

"Blink", January 2006: a comment on Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink

"Malleable intelligence", November 2005: a comment on Carol S. Dweck's chapter "Beliefs that make smart people dumb"

"Cheating culture", August 2005: a comment on David Callahan's book The Cheating Culture

"Learning about intuition", June 2004: a comment on David G. Myer's book Intuition

"Changing your brain", May 2004: a comment on Robert Restak's book The New Brain

"Random selection of leaders", October 2003: a comment on an article by S. Alexander Haslam et al.

"Weird ideas", February 2003: a comment on Robert I. Sutton's book Weird Ideas that Work

"The enterprise university", June 2001: a comment on Simon Marginson and Mark Considine's book The Enterprise University

"Learning lessons from academic disputes", March 2001: a comment on prominent Australian academic disputes

"University of Wollongong: a distinctive university?", December 1996: a comment on ways the university might become distinctive rather than great


Email: bmartin@uow.edu.au

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