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