Scut Work: My Life as a Janitor
People think the life of an ER doctor, or any doctor, is exciting. Truth is, most of it is scut work. But then, most of life is scut work: there are no exciting jobs, only people excited about their jobs.
Medicine
Blind Spots
“There is none so blind as he who cannot see.” Sooner or later, this is all of us.
Snake Blind
Scientists, doctors, and all of us, are snake blind: it was true for Galen, Vesalius, and William Harvey, and it is true for today’s doctors & scientists.
Cajun Juggling & Univariate Thinking
In Cajun culture, where joy and improvisation shape daily life, cognitive flexibility isn’t just a survival skill—it’s a kind of local wisdom, passed down like a good recipe or a sharp joke. Cultural Surprise: A Cajun Childhood Misreads America In high school it was a great surprise for me to discover that the United States … [Read more…]
How Many Brains Do We Have?
If you live in Acadiana, you should check out a current-events talk show on KRVS, ‘Bayou to Beltway‘. The host, Pearson Cross, was the Department Head of Political Science here at the University for some years, and if you keep up with Louisiana politics you have seen him quoted in papers nationwide. He has become … [Read more…]
Women in Medicine & Life
I remember one of my med school classmates, a woman who told us about how she knew when she was very young that she would be a doctor when she grew up. She had no doubt about that. “What I couldn’t figure out,” she explained, “was how I was going to become a man.” It … [Read more…]
The New US Founders
In one of the recent presidential debates, a panelist asked Ben Carson what he would do about ‘grey’ drugs, life-saving medicines that have recently seen astronomical price inflation. My ears perked up. For some time I have wondered about how we might resolve the tension, and where the balance point lies, between the considerations of … [Read more…]
On Prejudice
The real problem with prejudice is closed-mindedness: too often our first impression – our prejudice – remains our only impression.
The Raving Liberal Military
It would be hard to think of a more conservative culture than the military. There are strict rules, rigid protocols, and inflexible generic clothes. In addition, there is a prescribed, if unwritten, code for personal behavior that approaches the robotic, and is often a lampoon of conservative stereotypes: brusque, business-only, stoic, humorless, and unemotional. Perhaps … [Read more…]
The Best Worst Teacher
A couple of the best teachers I ever had were not very good teachers. Let me explain. The first was a high school math teacher that I had for two years. One of my best friends was in her classes with me, let’s say his name was Picard. She would hand back our exams and … [Read more…]