Re: CONSIDERING

Re:CONSIDERING invites you to look at what's familiar from an unfamiliar angle. To consider how we consider things – and how to do it better. What were you thinking? We all feel entitled to our opinion. Whether it be our take on politics, vaccines, parenting, or the value of religion, everybody wants to have their say – and everybody loves to be right. But do we know what it means to think well? Covering 'idiot brain', lobotomies, the difference between certainty and confidence, the nature of facts, and the virtue of intellectual hospitality, Mark Stephens invites you to consider not just what you think but how and why you think. Do we think only for ourselves, or also for the good of others?

Re: CONSIDERING invites you to look at what's familiar from an unfamiliar angle. To consider how we consider things, and how to do it better. Are you an achievement addict? It's hard not to be one given our collective obsession with success. Students fear that the ATAR will sum up not just their schooling career, but also their individual worth. Australians aren't just mad for sporting victory, skyrocketing house prices show we're equally hooked on owning property. Then there are the furious work habits of Silicon Valley CEOs, violin prodigies, and tiger mums. Why do we constantly strive for our significance, and could you quit the habit if you tried?

Re:CONSIDERING invites you to look at what's familiar from an unfamiliar angle. To consider how we consider things – and how to do it better. Has our obsession with freedom distracted us from more important things? Freedom has crept out of our constitutions and legal systems and into our eating, shopping and live-streaming habits. There's more and more to be free from: inconvenience, offence, limits – anything that stands in the way of what we want. And yet, we are – somehow – more anxious, grumpy and divided than ever. Can a society that's drunk on freedom come back to its senses? What if freedom is a trap? And if it is, what can we do to free ourselves from it?

Re:CONSIDERING invites you to look at what's familiar from an unfamiliar angle. To consider how we consider things – and how to do it better. What makes a good man? In this grounded, forthright and hopeful book, Simon Smart reconsiders the modern male dilemma. Models of masculinity may be less constricting than they used to be – but boys and men are confused about what's expected of them, and it shows. In education, in mental health, in relationships, they're struggling. And we're all struggling to have a constructive conversation about the challenges they face. Drawing on his own experiences of schooling and fatherhood, the best contemporary research, interviews with those on the front lines of a growing crisis, as well as ancient wisdom, Simon Smart asks the question: how can we help boys become their best selves, and a gift to those around them?