What we learnt in 2024

Some of my favourite people share their insights

I woke up yesterday morning to a newsletter from American site The Free Press, in which a number of US thinkers shared what they learnt in 2024.

“Somebody should do that here!” I thought, and texted Spinoff founder Duncan Greive to ask if he’d take part.

“I was just thinking, somebody should do that here!” he replied, so we were off to a flyer.

I texted some more people: “For my final Substack I’m asking ten of my favourite thinkers to tell me something they’ve learnt in 2024. Wanna text me something back?”

Then I sent them a follow up with my own answer to that question:

I’ve learnt that we need to try and understand why so many good people voted for Trump if we want to fix any of the problems Trump represents. And, after frying two eggs for my daughter’s breakfast each day, I’ve learnt that the eggs won’t work unless I let the pan heat up for longer than I think it needs.

People were surprisingly happy to take part - even people like Duncan who are usually paid handsomely for writing down their hot takes. Thanks everyone!

DUNCAN GREIVE - founder of The Spinoff

I'm coming to believe Wayne Brown is a globally significant politician. 2024 was billed as "the year the world votes", and the results of that monster election cycle was that most incumbent parties were blasted from power. This was often disconnected from their records – the Democrats oversaw what was by many measures an outstanding economy – yet lost the popular vote, lost every swing state and saw even large chunks of New York swing hard for Trump.

There is a strong sense that part of the sprawling problem for many incumbents is that they preside over and often defend institutions which are no longer delivering what people expect of them. In New Zealand, most of our parties in parliament have been in government in the last 18 months, and recent polling suggested that every single leader of our major and minor parties has a negative net favourability rating.

You know who doesn't? Wayne Brown. A similar poll (albeit asking a slightly different question) gave him net satisfaction of +25%. He's running again in 2025, and absent something weird happening will win without breaking a sweat. This despite his city being profoundly under construction, and subject to most of the same bad vibes which echo around the country and the world.

What's so interesting about Brown is that unlike many populists, he doesn't just want to tear down, he wants to build. It's the engineer in him. He'll savagely attack organisations and institutions, but there is an underlying belief that they must be better (and work more efficiently) so that the city can do better. That's fundamentally different to the "burn it all down" ethos so common around the world, which often comes without any notion of what might rise on the other side of the fire.

For that reason, a politician I was deeply sceptical of and didn't vote for has become one I think is doing something kind of extraordinary: leading while articulating the anger of his constituents in an often useful way. A rare good thing to learn in a year when most of the lessons were bad.

ALICE DIMOND (Kāi Tahu), Tokona te Raki – Māori Future Makers

This year I read a brilliant (but admittedly from 2020!) article by Hana Burgess and Te Kahuratai Painting.

In it, they write about how whakapapa, or relationships, inform how Māori interpret time. An example is in the words we use for the past, onamata, and the future, anamata. Mata means eyes, so onamata refers to seeing the past through the eyes of our tūpuna, while anamata is about seeing the future through the eyes of our mokopuna. Pretty cool to think about what this means for shaping futures we would be proud for our ancestors and descendants to see!

CHRIS SCHULZ, music journalist at Boiler Room

Across the most hectic, tumultuous, emotional and game-changing year of my life, I’ve learned that I can weather any storm. I’ve also learned that while music can’t solve my problems, it can help me engage with them, and enlighten them. No matter how tired you’re feeling, no matter what else is going on in your life, no matter how much the car park costs or dynamic pricing sets you back, nothing can help you levitate more than an incredible live performance. My motto for 2025: always go to the show. Always.

GAURAV SHARMA, Senior Journalist RNZ

This, for me, has been a year of (re)learning.

(Re)learning that patience is one of the greatest - and most underrated - virtues of life.

As they say, life is a great leveller. The highs and the lows all even out, eventually. If only, we are patient enough to ride through the tough times.

(Re)learning that your child's smile is the best antidote for all the stresses of the world.

The smile which reminds us to work towards correcting what is still a fairly unfair world.

So 2024 taught me to have patience and keep my daughter close, always! 🙂

KELLI BRETT, editor of Cuisine

I’ve learned so much.

Which is good cause I’ve always said when I stop learning I’m out!

Top of my list is the gobsmacking light bulb this year that has exposed just how many of us operate under the old imposter syndrome challenge.

I’ve been hearing it from chefs and hospo folk but also while developing all of the Women In Food & Drink events this year - the common theme has been “I’m not sure I deserve to be here in this room with all of these amazing women”.

Those negative voices in our heads second guessing every move and telling us we are not worthy have got to stop! It’s made me realise that we never really know what is going on inside the minds of others and how important it is to support and encourage wherever possible.

For me 2025 is a commitment to developing and empowering as many positive voices as I can.

LAURA TUPOU, presenter ThreeNews

After being made redundant I've learnt that job security is never guaranteed (surprise!) and it made me appreciate even more so the relationships I have with people and the importance of looking after yourself. On a lighter note I've also learnt that there's a lot of strategy that goes into paper scissors rock. Turns out it's all about anticipating your opponent's next move and recognising a pattern. World champs follow a formula that they think will be undetectable. And now that I live "over the bridge", I've learnt that the Northshore is actually better than Auckland city. They were right all along!

SANDON JAMES, DJ The Sweet Mix Kids

I’ve learnt that a great therapist indeed does hold most of the answers that you need, but will always refuse to accompany you on tour when they’re needed the most. There’s also a vast difference between a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a psychotherapist and a physiotherapist, which is probably why dyslexics always look so healthy.

Also, marquees aren’t needed because BUILDINGS EXIST.

MIKE MCROBERTS, Te Ao Maori editor, NBR

I've known for a while that the thought of change is often harder to navigate than the change itself. After a couple decades working in daily news I worried I might never find work that felt as vital again - but what I've learnt this year is significance is where you choose to look for it.

Also as a Wahs supporter I learnt way too early in the season this wasn't going to be our year.

MARAMA T-POLE, newsreader on RNZ Afternoons

This year has been one of the hardest I've experienced. My hubby and I bought a business two years ago. A big dream fulfilled. But now, it feel like it is crumbling with business being tough. I'm stressed we will lose it. And the house. My hubby has been applying for job every other day, no bites. Despite this. I know things will get better. That's what I've learnt. It's not the end of the world. Yet. So just keep going one step at a time. Enjoy the small things; keep being grateful. We will get through these tough times. And I'm fat from the emotional eating. So if I have nothing to eat, I have fat reserves.

VICTORIA MULLIGAN, futures thinker

I’ve learnt that the way we respond to a crisis can actually be part of the crisis. Too often, our responses rely on rigid, unchanging plans—we act like we’re fixing a bridge, using equations and assumptions designed to last for centuries. But social problems are far more complex.

Good solutions are dynamic, flexible and collaborative. Whether you’re asking your five-year-old to try coleslaw for the first time or asking a bunch of CEOs to imagine what their great-grandchildren will say about them, real change happens at the speed of trust.

MATT HEATH, ZB Afternoons and Less Punishing

Cock ups are content. I learnt this from my good buddy Jesse Mulligan. I was MCing the Reseller awards at the Cordis Hotel in Auckland in November. After delivering 10 minutes of opening 'comedy' that went down well I was so stoked with myself I left the stage without my rundown. As a result I didn't know when to come back on between awards. As result I bum rushed the show mid a winner’s acceptance speech. Once again leaving the stage without my rundown causing me to bum rush the show again mid the next acceptance speech. Humiliating myself and everyone who saw me do it. As MC I am supposed to know what's going on. My job is not to ruin the evening. Backstage during the dinner service I contacted J Mulligan saying 'I just had the most major cockup on stage. Sitting in my own filth backstage'. He responded 'Great. If something even mildly funny happens refer to it next time you talk. You get double credit for some weird reason'.

Armed with these great words I went back out and ripped myself a new one on stage over my cock ups for the rest of the night . It worked a treat. I owned my shame and gave it away. Also it was free content. I am sure this works outside of the world of MCing too. What can you can take from your embarrassing mistakes? Either way that is the most useful thing I have learnt this year. Thanks Jesse. Full disclosure I finished writing my book A Life Less Punishing in December last year so the thousands of awesome things I learnt and put in there don't count for this years lessons :) Bless

KATE RODGER, journalist at The Projector

2024 showed me that all good things really do come to an end and when that end comes it’s a hellava lot easier when you’re surrounded by the best kind of people.

I also finally mastered the art of keeping houseplants alive and now I live in a magnificent indoor jungle. Turns out I’ve been overwatering and drowning the poor buggers my entire adult life and if that’s not a metaphor for said life I dunno what is.

ANTHONIE TONNON, musician and municipal enthusiast

I read How Big Things Get Done this time last year (and relistened to this great interview with Dan Gardner). Ideas like planning slowly but delivering quickly when it's time to break ground have been the things I've been trying to put into practise this year. I love that Flyvbjerg has the data to show that the projects with the largest cost overruns are, #1 - nuclear waste disposal, but #2 - IT projects - because both are usually so bespoke, whereas the projects with the fewest cost and time overruns are on solar farms, where you can build one lego-like cell at a time and then repeat.

A beautiful and often heartbreaking story of project management (among really much else), is Te Whare O Rehua Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui, which reopened in November. I've lived here for 7 years, and the first time I stood in the building was on opening day. I learned a lot from Martin Edmond's history of the 105 year old institution - which shows how even an institution that has tough or underwhelming decades can amass something incredible in the long run, and transform very quickly when it's moment comes - as it did in the years of Bill Millbank's innovative directorship from the late 70s. That period helped to make Whanganui the city of artists it is today.

KELLY GIBNEY, food writer at Let’s Talk in the Kitchen

This year, I learnt the value in seeking out perspectives that differ from my own. Stress testing my own tightly-held political views by listening to an opposing opinion (with an open mind) hasn't often changed my mind entirely but it has helped me cultivate compassion for other people, understand better the factors that shape their beliefs, and to see so clearly that real people rarely fit neatly inside the camps that we're lead to believe we're divided into.

I also learnt that lifting heavy things a couple of times a week is actually really fun.

Thank you for reading I Ate Auckland in 2024. Writing it has been one of the things I’ve most enjoyed about this year. Subscriber numbers continue to grow steadily - if you know somebody who’d enjoy reading my newsletter please forward them this giant email. I Ate Auckland is free, and I have no plans to start charging.