Mea sententia

Dr. V has a great blog post here. Worth reading, as most of his posts are.

Joseph Campbell observed that the more a culture felt threatened or controlled by unpredictable forces, the more rituals it would evolve, the more complex they would be, and the more vigorously they would be enforced.

At the suggestion of a colleague, I submitted one of my blog posts to the FMEC ‘This I believe’ contest. To my surprise, it was selected as an award winner, and this past Sunday, October 22nd, I attended their annual Northeast meeting to read my essay (accompanied by a slide show of my photographs) and receive my award. It was tremendous fun and energizing, and has renewed my determination to return to teaching family practice residents, at least part time, over the next year.

The essay in its revised (for presentation) form is published here below the fold…

Those who are too smart to engage in politics… 

…are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

Ernest Martin Hopkins said that intelligent leadership requires an intelligent constituency.

Shortly after 3:00 I was sitting and listening to Chloe’s precise clinical description.

A disappointing John Tierney article about decision fatigue in the New York Times magazine section is just the most recent in a collection of equally disappointing discussions of an issue that is both widespread and important.

Meetings are an excellent tool for top-down hierarchies to manage and control information and decision making, but are inherently inimical to broad participation or collaborative processes.  Here are eight specific ways in which meetings, when used alone,  represent a barrier to collaboration rather than a collaborative tool…

He walked in without an appointment and asked the receptionist for a ‘subscription for penicillin.’ Judy buzzed me, saying in the special quiet tone she used for urgent matters, that I needed to come to the desk - now. He was an impressive sight, big enough to have to stoop to talk to Judy through the window and wide enough to completely block the view of the waiting room behind him.