Category Archives: belief

Four Ways to Rethink ‘Having It All’ (Without Leaning In)

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 8 May 2013

Here’s an article I just wrote for the Wall Street Journal on the dilemmas of balancing work and family life. Is Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, author of Leaning In, right to think that women can ‘have it all’ if only they really believe in themselves? My approach is not to answer the question ‘Is it possible [...]

Also posted in family, history, money, politics, psychology, public policy, simple living, travel, work | Leave a comment

The Human Zoo: The tyranny of group-don’t-think

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 26 March 2013

There’s a fascinating new BBC Radio 4 series called The Human Zoo, looking at the ins and outs of who we really are – are we led by the head or the heart? what are the quirks and qualities that drive human behaviour? Episode 4 focuses on why human beings find it so difficult to admit when [...]

Also posted in creativity, emotions, ethics, podcasts, psychology, science, work | 2 Comments

How Goethe can change your life – 3 lessons for 2013

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 1 January 2013

So you’ve drawn up your list of New Year’s resolutions. Some are probably achievable, like giving up eating chocolate for breakfast. Others may be more daunting because they represent a long-held desire to take your life in a new direction, anything from changing career to renewing family relationships. If you’ve resolved to make a big change, I suggest [...]

Also posted in history, love, travel, work | 6 Comments

Can reading a novel change the world?

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 24 July 2012

‘It was through books that I first realised there were other worlds beyond my own; first imagined what it might be like to be another person,’ wrote novelist Julian Barnes in a recent Guardian essay. It’s an enticing thought that reading fiction might help us escape the straitjacket of our egos and expand our moral [...]

Also posted in art, empathy, empathy through education, empathy through experience, ethics, family, history, literature, love, philosophy, religion | 2 Comments

Jubilee’ve the hype? One hundred years of royal PR

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 4 June 2012

Over a million rain-soaked loyal subjects watched the Queen’s barge and a thousand support vessels bobble along the Thames this weekend to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee. And around the country many more millions joined the festivities at street parties, country fairs, community dances and cake sales. But now the Union Jacks have been put away, [...]

Also posted in history, politics, public policy | 3 Comments

The Six Habits of Highly Empathic People

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 1 April 2012

This is the video of a talk I gave at the Royal Society of the Arts, which describes six ways to expand our empathic potential, drawing on everything from the empathy experiments of George Orwell to developments in industrial design, from the struggle against slavery in the eighteenth century to the Middle East crisis today. Discover [...]

Also posted in background, climate change, conversation, empathy, empathy through conversation, empathy through education, empathy through experience, ethics, history, literature, podcasts, politics, psychology, public policy, science | 2 Comments

The lost history of the househusband

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 21 January 2012

The following article originally appeared in The Guardian. The great tragedy of modern parenting is that we’ve forgotten its history – and mothers are paying the price. Contrary to popular belief, the superdad who takes on a serious share of childcare and housework is not a new invention. Before the industrial revolution – a mere couple of [...]

Also posted in ethics, family, history, love, work | 2 Comments

Five dead people to follow in 2012

By Roman Krznaric | Published: 7 January 2012

Browse the self-help shelves of your local book store and you’ll spot that most titles draw on psychology, philosophy and religion for their wisdom. But there is one realm where few of them have sought inspiration: history. When asking the big questions about life, love, work and death, we sometimes forget that people have been [...]

Also posted in conversation, creativity, empathy, empathy through conversation, money, politics, senses, simple living, time, travel, work | 1 Comment

  • Welcome to OUTROSPECTION, my blog on empathy and the art of living. You'll find articles, interviews and news on the fundamental questions of how to live, with an emphasis on outrospection, which is about discovering who we are by stepping outside ourselves and exploring the lives of other people and cultures.

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