Man Is Fallible, But Maybe Men Are

Outsiders Tend To Be The First To Recognize The Inadequacies Of Our Social Institutions. But, Precisely Because They Are Outsiders, They Are Usually In A Poor Position To Fix Them.

Practice Is Funny That Way. For Days And Days, You Make Out Only The Fragments Of What To Do. And Then One Day You've Got The Thing Whole. Conscious Learning Becomes Unconscious Knowledge, And You Cannot Say Precisely How.

Over Time I Learned That There Are Two Very Different Satisfactions That You Can Have In Your Life. One Is The Satisfaction Of Becoming Skilled At Something. It Almost Doesn't Matter What The Terrain Is. There Is A Deep, Soul-feeding Resonance In Mastery Itself, Whether In Teaching, Writing A Complicated Software Program, Coaching A Baseball Team, Or Marshalling A Group Of People To Start A New Business.

I Talked To Over Two Hundred Patients And Family Members About Their Experiences With Aging, Serious Illnesses, And The Big Unfixables. But I Also Spoke With Scores Of Physicians, And Especially Geriatricians, Palliative Care Doctors, Hospice Nurses, And Nursing Home Workers. The Biggest Thing I Found Was That When These Clinicians Were At Their Best, They Were Recognizing That People Had Priorities Besides Merely Living Longer. The Most Important And Reliable Way That We Can Understand What People's Priorities Are, Besides Just Living Longer, Is To Simply Ask. And We Don't Ask.

Don’t Let Yourself Be. Find Something New To Try, Something To Change. Count How Often It Succeeds And How Often It Doesn’t. Write About It. Ask A Patient Or A Colleague What They Think About It. See If You Can Keep The Conversation Going.