Google noted that in 2022, there was a new record for the search, ‘Can I change?’ If the father of modern psychology, William James, was alive, he’d probably say, ‘of course you can. Change your habits’. Most behavioural psychologists would say that habits are the key to understanding behaviour, and that habits are simply learned. …
The term Cognitive Dissonance first appeared in 1956 and was coined by Leon Festinger to describe the mental stress caused by holding two incompatible beliefs at the same time. Festinger and his fellow researchers had infiltrated a doomsday cult that believed the world was ending, and that they were going to be rescued. Some group …
Paul Symon, the outgoing Director General of ASIS (the Australian Secret Intelligence Service) recently commented on the recruitment challenge in finding the next generation of spies. He said that ASIS looked for a high IQ and high EQ – but also for people who were balanced. They need to be comfortable in their own skin, …
I’ve just received a column from a UK newspaper that describes one of the most unusual jobs I have ever come across: Coffin Confessor. It is also known as, Funeral Crasher. In fact, Bill Edgar, former private investigator, bodyguard, and ex-convict, does not really crash the funerals he attends. He has been invited … by …
An Aussie café employee was sacked for failing to use a happy face emoji in a text reply to her boss. The Fair Work Commission, rightly in this case, ruled that this was an unfair dismissal. I suspect that decision took about two seconds to make. Somewhere and somehow, a manager believed that an emoji …
I know what a CEO is supposed to do, and I understand the requirements for a COO, CFO, and a CIO, but I have finally realised that the role I was born to occupy, was as a CCO. According to the Washington Post, the Candy Funhouse Company of Canada is advertising for a Chief Candy …
Administrators are currently selling the assets of Melissa Caddick, who parted her family and friends with around A$23 million in a Ponzi scheme. Ms Caddick’s severed foot was found on a New South Wales beach three months after she mysteriously vanished from Sydney. I still find people who are convinced that she cut off her …
According to the magazine Paris Match, and various respected journalists, Putin’s bodyguards ‘collect his excrement on trips abroad and take it back to Russia with them.’ They are quite literally, carrying the can. At first, I wondered if they had taken the plea made to all tourists, leave only footprints behind, just a little too …
My youngest son is twenty-one and recently told me that, amongst his mates, there is a strong sense that they will never be able to retire. They believe that the age at which a pension can be collected, will keep moving out of their grasp. This will happen insidiously, while they pay taxes and keep …
One of my undergraduate tutors gave out a list called Winners and Losers, a page of career tips that he thought might improve our chances in life. Calling us winners or losers is an awful notion, but it was the eighties. We were watching Dynasty and Dallas. I lost that page a long time ago, …