Snap Judgments
We meet someone for the first time. We instinctively “assess” that person, a process that can take place in a second or two. General appearance, speech patterns, verbal fluency, presence of an accent, ethnicity, age, gender, body habitus, configuration of the hands, eyes, and face––that’s it, we’ve made our split-second assessment. We have a distinct […]
Not to be Surprised
Changing the mind of a single person, whose views are antagonistic, presents a multidimensional puzzle, its own complex problem, one with no simple solution. You believe in the rightness of your idea. It’s common sense. Yet the other person you’re speaking to does not see things your way. This is baffling to you. You cannot […]
The Interstitium: Hiding in Plain Sight
Recently, researchers have announced the existence of what they believe to be a new organ labeled the “interstitium.” The article, published in Scientific Reports, received wide media coverage. In a press release announcing the study, it was reported: “The field has long known that more than half the fluid in the body resides within cells, […]
Daubert and the Ethical Limits of Human Testing
It’s well known that some areas of research cannot be tested in human double-blind studies due to ethical prohibitions. Researchers cannot knowingly inflict harm to one group. See, e.g., In re Zoloft (Sertraline Hydrocholoride) Products Liability Litigation, 26 F.Supp.3d 449, 453 (US Dist. Ct. E.D. Penn. 2014)(“Although the “gold standard” for epidemiological studies is the […]
Perfecting Prediction: A Search for the Right Detail
Part of one’s task is to predict what likely will occur in the future. Not many devote any real effort to improving this “skill.” It’s akin to mindreading––why bother to devote any time to it? There’s no point. Probability theory and statistics––these provide tools of analysis, but not the means of arriving at the values […]
Care and Belief
There’s no work-life rule book, no single text that holds all the answers. Certainty is provisional; knowledge is interim; conventional wisdom can be uprooted in a day. Perfectionists are those who use a laser, not string, to align their garden rows. They ignore the well-worn path. They seek out the ultimate as if the ordinary––the […]
Searching for Patterns
We seek out patterns since they’re shortcuts to understanding. They provide an abbreviated means of making sense of things. When they work, they can save time and effort. But we sometimes find patterns in instances where none exist. Over time, we come to learn that searching for patterns can be a more complex task than […]
Triumph of Principles
“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his […]
Health as a Custom
When we follow a custom or engage in customary behavior we’re adopting the practices of a specific time and place. A custom is both a natural development of what has come before as well as an arbitrarily decided way of organizing society. Dress, manners, etiquette—these are common customs, and each country adopts their own particular […]
