The Fink Tank

Who's a global genius? Not me, not Col, and (sorry for crushing your dreams) not you either. But we'll forgive Col opening with a Picasso comparison, because it points to a useful idea. Your vision is capable of imagining quality beyond what your talent can presently produce. So there's a painful period, that lasts anywhere from a few months to forever, where what you create doesn'...

Col thinks we're all basically bacteria. Put bacteria in a warm, nutrient-rich environment and it thrives. Put it in a cold, sterile Petri dish and it stagnates.  Your conference in the beige hotel function room with polystyrene ceiling tiles sucks. You can’t put a bunch of humans into a Clifton's venue and ask them to feel inspired. There’s a reason every good house party ends up crammed...

Something I couldn't bring myself to throw out five years ago is plainly junk now. The line separating nostalgia and rubbish is thin. Every few years we wade through a sedimentary layer of crap in the Fink family home. We don't often make much headway, because the room is full of mementoes that span lifetimes. The trinkets in here go all the way back to Mum's childhood. Mum's uncle...

Col has hoarded so much stuff he literally owns a forklift to manage it. This week on The Fink Tank, we dig into the psychology of keeping shit you don't need. I LIVE for the moment when someone asks "do we have a cable for this?” and I can produce it from a cluttered box I fought to keep. That feeling is so good it almost justifies the years of stepping over the box. Almost. We’re at Mum...

The Fink Tank started in 2019. The first episode came out in 2023. If you've got an idea sitting on the launch pad, this one's for you. It wasn’t called The Fink Tank back then. I didn't even know what it was. I just knew I wanted to publish something fun with my brother Col. On the day this was recorded I'd been producing a curriculum series for Jaquie Scammell in a rented filming...

When is it okay to break your own rules? Picture this: You’re the team manager of a social over 45s football team, where the mantra is every player gets a fair go. Your team hasn’t won in two years. Your goal differential is a dismal -99. Somehow, in the last game of another winless season, you’re 1-0 up at half time. Your worst defender is sitting on the bench, due his 30 “fair go” minutes. What...

If you’ve replaced your knees, your opinions, your wardrobe, your habits, and most of your cells since 2009… Are you still you? Welcome to The Fink Tank Chair of Theseus, a deeply sensible conversation between two men in the second half of their lives. We move from ancient philosophy to identity, personal change, and why Dr Suess might have the answer.  Col brings his usual insightful ideas, I rep...

Here at The Fink Tank we usually aim for practical observations. NOT TODAY. Today we get our woo-woo on. Col and I usually deal in useful ideas for solo pros, sibling dickheadery, and the occasional uncomfortable truth. Today we ask a far less manageable question: Who ARE you? It gets pretty weird.  Also, I learnt some new words.

Hands up (again) all our favourite “I think I might have ADHD” people 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️ For a lot of us, finding an explanation for things we’ve struggled with can be a huge relief. But a diagnosis doesn’t neatly absolve responsibility.  In last years Fink Tank about ADHD, we talked about the subtle difference between an explanation and an excuse.  It prompted more conversation, in the comments and real...

“Mate, I’m not here to be f*cken reasonable!” - Some well-dressed guy at the football. Being a parochial sports fan is one thing. Objecting to basic facts is another.  The guy next to us was so one-eyed I eventually said something. His response was perfect. Because in that moment he wasn’t trying to be fair. Or even coherent.  He was being a rabid sports fan, and he was in exactly the right place....

“Cam, you’re smart enough to always be ‘right’, and I can’t be bothered anymore.” Oof. In our twenties, Col stopped talking to me for a few years. Fair enough. Smart people aren’t less biased. They’re just better at explaining why they’re “right”. That was me, and I was insufferable. There’s a poster of fallacies and biases in Col’s toilet, and it prompted some terrible jokes and useful reflection...

I expressed my exasperation to Col ’s 6-year-old son Deakin. His response was so funny it completely dissolved the tension. Being funny is a great quality. Even if you’re not exactly sure what’s funny or why. In this Fink Tank, Col and I laugh about the nature of humour and why it matters in life and work. Being stand-up-comedian level funny is beyond most people, for effort and talent reasons. Bu...

When I was 15, I stole an esky full of drinks from a random campsite. Not exactly the heist of the century, but it felt huge in the context of my teenage attempts at rebellion. I was fingered as the perp the next morning. I feared the worst, but the poor bastard whose beers I nicked had other ideas. In this Friday Fink Tank I share a story Col had never heard. I definitely never told mum or dad! M...

I came home to human poo in the driveway. Our fridge broke the same day. Life will always have problems. Are they actually problems though? In this Fink Tank Col Fink and I laugh about the human audacity to complain about things that were luxuries unavailable to even kings or queens only a hundred years ago. In a great 2024 article about the quality of problems, Alicia McKay wrote: Most of the pro...

I rented an e-bike and shot myself in the foot. By making life “easier” I accidentally made it less rewarding. If you run a business, it’s quite likely you love some parts more than others. In this Friday Fink tank Col Fink and I talk about the bits we love in our work, and the bits we like considerably less. And the difficulty of maintaining touch with the parts that light you up. We admire the a...

Did it hurt? When you read something so profound it left you reeling. A book that laid your soul bare. An article that prised open your brain. A quote distilling the human condition to its essence. An idea so poignant it simply MUST be shared with your bestie. You buy them the book. You email the article. You forward the meme. You anticipate deep connection, gratitude, shared metamorphosis.  Inste...

Col’s four year old daughter Darwin rode a pedal bike for the first time last week. If it weren’t for the Fink Tank, I would have missed it. In our final episode for this year, we reflect on the surprising longevity of the project, and the multiple ways it has brought joy to our lives. Since June 2023, we’ve dropped 114 episodes in 130 weeks. Apart from season breaks, we’ve only missed one Friday...

If you’re a member of the Dead Parent Club, today’s Fink Tank is for you. Our dad Tony died 27 years ago. On his anniversary yesterday we honoured him in Col’s shed.  I’m now about the same age as Dad was as I remember him. When I was younger all I could see were the differences. As I’ve aged, I’ve been quietly chuffed to grow into the similarities. I love seeing echos of his character in Col. We’...

People warned us about going to the United States. With alarming news at saturation point, we had doubts ourselves. Here’s what happened: Everything was fine. In Florida, people warned us about going to New Orleans. New Orleans was amazing. We went to a Halloween street party in the suburbs, and it was pure delight. But the people there warned us about going to downtown New Orleans. Downtown New O...

If you’re hurtling toward Christmas in a hectic hot mess, here’s the good news: That’s fine. It’s what November is for. If things are STILL chaotic in February, we might have issues.  Our great mate and friend of the show Digby Scott writes an annual “Christmas won’t fix it” newsletter.  In the spirit of nuanced debate for which social media is revered, The Fink Tank offers this response: He’s wro...

Cars are singularly amazing, and a collective pain in the arse. In this (mercifully short) Fink Tank rant, Col and I bemoan the loss of amenity in cities designed entirely around cars. It points to a frequently occurring tension in modern individualistic life: Things that make MY day easier often make EVERYONE’S day worse. Including mine. (Ha! I toyed with writing “make ONE’S day easier” for the i...

Is it just us, or is everyone else already bored with AI generated stuff? The explosion of prompt-generated videos WITH OUR OWN FACES in fantastical scenarios is astonishing. And also dull. It’s eye-catching, but devoid of any substance. There’s zero emotional investment. Video calls with 10-year-old Harriet often involve her head turning into a skull with rainbows pouring out of its ears, or a cu...

Without vision correction, I truly cannot see how many finger’s you’re holding up. I can barely see how many fingers I’M holding up. But I almost exclusively wear contact lenses, so even people who know me well are sometimes surprised to find out I'm short-sighted at all. Glasses are an indicator of the problem AND the solution. Contact lenses quietly solve the problem without anybody knowing...

My Airbnb roommate was a Hollywood movie star. I had no idea.  I was at the Toronto Greek Film Festival for Ange & The Boss, and the organiser said, “You’ve got a roommate tonight. You’ll like him.” Five minutes later, he’s pointing at me going, “Wait… you’re the guy who made that Ange Postecoglou film?” Turns out he knew half the people in it. He’d actually PLAYED with them in the 1980s. His...

Hands up all our favourite “I think I might have ADHD” people This week’s Fink Tank kicks off with Col “diagnosing” both of us, before comparing ADHD to being left-handed. Something that only showed up in the stats once it became socially acceptable to admit it. We dig into the blurry line between explanation and excuse. When does understanding yourself help you grow, and when does it just become...