The BIG IDEAS Book Club

Manipulation: What It Is, Why It's Bad, What to Do About It

Mon, Oct 5 · 6:30 PM AEDT

Keg & Brew Hotel, 26 Foveaux St, Surry Hills, NS, AU

How often are your decisions really your own? Every day we are surrounded by advertising, social media, political campaigns, news headlines, influencers, sales techniques and well-meaning advice — all competing for our attention and trying to shape what we think, feel and do. But where is the line between persuasion and manipulation? Can manipulation ever be ethical, or is it always something to resist? And in an age of personalised algorithms and increasingly sophisticated AI, are we becoming easier to manipulate than ever before? Come and join us as we explore these fascinating and relevant questions of modern life.

Book: Manipulation: What It Is, Why It's Bad, What to Do About It (2025) by Cass R. Sunstein

Companion Reading: A Guide to Understanding Manipulation (prepared for this meetup)

Cass Sunstein is almost uniquely placed to write this book. He is the co-creator of nudge theory (with Richard Thaler), a former senior adviser in the Obama White House, and one of the most cited legal scholars in the world. He has spent decades studying how human psychology shapes decisions, and has seen from the inside how governments and corporations exploit that knowledge. The result is a book that is simultaneously rigorous and readable: part philosophy, part law, part behavioural science, and part catalogue of the tricks being played on us every day. Sunstein moves from abstract definitions — what exactly separates manipulation from persuasion, and why does it matter? — through case studies of dark patterns, deepfakes, deliberate bureaucratic friction, and the social pressure traps of platforms like TikTok, before arriving at what may be the book's most important question: as AI makes manipulation more precise and more powerful than at any previous point in history, do we need a new legal and moral right — a right not to be manipulated — in the same way that a previous era recognised, for the first time, a right to privacy?

This is one of those discussions where prior reading is not just encouraged but genuinely necessary — the conversation will move quickly into territory that only makes sense if you already understand Sunstein's conceptual framework. The companion reading guide is designed to make that framework accessible quickly, so even if time is short, a read-through of it will set you up well. But if you can get hold of the book itself, we think you'll find it genuinely easy to read or listen to — and it comes with a notable endorsement: Tim Wu, whose book we discussed just a couple of months ago, has named it as one of his top book recommendations.

So join us for a drink (and optional meal) at 6:30pm on Monday, 5th October, on the 2nd floor of the Keg & Brew Hotel in Surrey Hills (i.e. up two flights of stairs). The venue is conveniently located near Central Station and the Light Rail.

We look forward to seeing you there!

P.S. Please adjust your RSVP if you have indicated that you will come but are no longer able to do so. This is courteous to others if there is a waitlist.

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These are just optional links to consider to supplement the reading of the book and document. Feel free to pass on other useful links in the discussion section.

Videos

• Cass Sunstein in a seminar and podcast:
  Online Seminar - Fifty Shades of Manipulation (43 mins)
  Sunstein on Manipulation vs Influence
• 5 Insights on the book (The Next Big Idea Club) by Sunstein. Note that the audio version is more detailed than the written summary below it:
  These Are the Silent Manipulations Most People Don’t Notice

Written

• The Guardian Review:
  Why we need a right not to be manipulated

Why Aren't We Working Less? The Four-Day Work Week Debate

Mon, Nov 2 · 6:30 PM AEDT

Keg & Brew Hotel, 26 Foveaux St, Surry Hills, NS, AU

Why do we still work so much? In 1930, celebrated economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that rising productivity would reduce the working week to just fifteen hours by now, leaving society with a novel challenge: what to do with all that free time! He was remarkably close on the productivity prediction—yet the standard working week has barely changed. So where did the promised leisure go? Did consumerism convince us to trade leisure for luxury brands and better gadgets? Did work itself become too central to who we are — our identity, our worth, our status in the world — to simply give some of it up? Or did most of the gains from productivity growth flow upward, leaving the rest of us running just to stand still? We'll explore the history of the five-day week, the evidence coming from today's four-day week trials, and whether working less could create a happier, healthier society—or simply new problems. Join us as we unpack this fascinating debate about the future of work.

Primary Reading: Why Do We Still Work So Much? The Pros and Cons of a Four-Day Week (a document prepared for this meetup)

Report: Four-Day Work Week (2026) by Parliamentary Library of Australia

(Optional) Book: The Case for a Four-Day Week (2021) by Anna Coote, Aidan Harper and Alfie Stirling

There wasn't one ideal book (affordable and easily available in paperback) for this month's topic, so the primary reading is a document prepared specially for this meetup, It traces the history of the working week from its origins through to today's four-day trials and policy proposals, weighing the strongest arguments on both sides. It's designed to give everyone a shared, evidence-based foundation for the discussion.

However, if you are fine with reading eBooks or can find it with your library, the main book I would suggest is The Case for a Four Day Week by Anna Coote, Aidan Harper and Alfie Stirling, which is a widely cited book-length treatment of the topic and is readily available as an eBook, though you will probably need to order it in if you'd prefer a paperback. And if you have no luck with that book, there are also two other similar books mentioned below which you may also want to try (O'Connor and Lindzon, 2026; Schor, 2025)

We also recommend you look at a short, up-to-date report from the Parliamentary Library of Australia, which offers a concise local policy snapshot to complement the broader discussion in the main reading.

As always, we strongly encourage you to do the reading before attending. This will enrich both your experience and our collective discussion. We’ve also included links below to further resources on the topic.

So join us for a drink (and optional meal) at 6:30pm on Monday, 2 November, on the 2nd floor of the Keg & Brew Hotel in Surrey Hills (i.e. up two flights of stairs). The venue is conveniently located near Central Station and the Light Rail.

We look forward to seeing you there!

P.S. Please adjust your RSVP if you have indicated that you will come but are no longer able to do so. This is courteous to others if there is a waitlist.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These are just optional links to consider. Feel free to pass on other useful links in the discussion section.
Videos

• Two short explainer videos about why we still work so much:
  The five-day workweek was made up. What if we changed it?
  Why do we still need to work?
• Two videos on the four-day work week:
  TED The Case for a 4-Day Work Week by Juliet Schor
  ABC Could a 4-day working week be coming to Australia?
• SBS Insight - Rat Race - Episode 11 2026. As post-COVID attitudes towards work-life balance continue to change, some of us are questioning our role in the rat race and opting out. For others, the choice is hampered by housing and cost-of-living pressures. This Insight explores how Australians are balancing a desire to clock-off - and doing something like a 4-day week - with their need to pay the bills.

Written

• A Britannica overview of issues relating to a four-day work week:
  The Four-Day Work Week
• Studies and trends in Australia's experience with four day work week;
  Emerging Four Day Work Week Trends in Australia
• An annotated reading of John Maynard Keynes' 1930 lecture about what 2030 might look like:
  Keynes (1930) Economic possibilities for our grandchildren
• Other books which members may want to look at:
  - Do More in Four: Why It's Time for a Shorter Workweek (2026) by Joe O'Connor and Jared Lindzon — written by the pioneer behind Ireland's national four-day week pilot, this is one of the most current, practically-minded account of how organisations are actually redesigning work around a shorter week, including in the age of AI.
  - Four Days a Week: The Life-Changing Solution for Reducing Employee Stress, Improving Well-Being, and Working Smarter (2025) by Juliet Schor — drawing on the largest study yet conducted on reduced-hours trials (245 organisations, 8,700 workers), this is Schor's own full account of the evidence behind the case for a four-day week.
  - Bullshit Jobs: A Theory (2018) by David Graeber — a provocative anthropological argument that a significant share of modern work is pointless by the admission of the people doing it, offering a very different angle on why we still work so much.