Whilst lessons in this course have discussed the benefits of the compounding effect, of consistency and doing what you know you need to do, when people get stuck, they are often stuck because they are doing the wrong things, or things that don’t really matter. If you’re busy, working really hard, and you’re exhausted at…
Continuing with the theme of the last lesson — that being busy doesn’t mean you’re always being productive — I’m going to approach this from another angle and discuss two other cognitive biases that cause the same problem. Understanding them will help you see what you might be doing wrong when you’re busy, exhausted, and…
It’s winter in the UK, and flu season is upon us. I saw a really sick kid a few days ago and admitted him to hospital. He’d been seen just a few days before with what looked like a simple cold. Now he’s on a paediatric ward with pneumonia, struggling to breathe, parents terrified out…
I originally wrote an article on ‘The Power of No’ after reflecting on a busy Monday-morning triage session. If I had to identify the single most important thing that kept me on track that day, and the single most important thing that allowed me to be most productive in my efforts, it was my ability…
You’re looking to make the big move. The one decision that changes everything. The perfect plan that guarantees success. Here’s a fact: for most of us, it doesn’t exist. Here’s what does exist: chaos. Not the panic kind, not the mess kind. The mathematical kind. The kind that means small changes in what you do…
Every living thing on the planet moves toward reward and away from punishment. Bacteria do it. Animals do it. You do it. It’s not complicated. It’s not sophisticated. It’s the most basic operating principle in all of biology: seek pleasure, avoid pain, move toward what helps you, move away from what hurts you. Charlie Munger…
Moving away from chaos, we need to move on to its close friend: causality. Causality is simple in theory. It’s the relationship between an event (the cause) and a second event (the effect), where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first. Press the button, the light turns on. Touch the fire,…
That cup of tea tastes so much better after you’ve been out in the cold and wet for an hour. Not because you made it differently. Not because the tea changed. You changed. You went from freezing to warm, from miserable to comfortable, and now every sip feels like a small miracle. That’s your brain…
On a surgical rotation, one of my old mentors at the time (thanks Rob) told me that there are three types of decisions you can make when you have a sick surgical patient in front of you. You can make the decision to operate and take the patient to the operating theatre. You can make…
You’re willing to do what it takes to succeed. You’ll work harder. You’ll sacrifice sleep. You’ll put in the hours. You’re ready for the challenge, the difficulty, the effort. But here’s the question you haven’t asked yourself: are you ready to accept the effect it will have on those around you? This is the Second…