Team
When Stephen M.R. Covey told the story of a business student sitting her final examination, the punch line was the last question of that business degree exam: "What is the name of the person who cleans your dorm?"
What a question! This sort of question made the student want to pull her hair out. Crestfallen, she asked the professor if the question really counted on their final grade. "Indeed it does!" he replied. "A good leader takes nothing for granted and recognizes the
What a question! This sort of question made the student want to pull her hair out. Crestfallen, she asked the professor if the question really counted on their final grade. "Indeed it does!" he replied. "A good leader takes nothing for granted and recognizes the
Truth
When doctors speak casually to their patients, little do we realize our words mean an awful lot. Sometimes the truth hurts, and it pains me to say this, but there will be situations that challenge a prima facie duty for honesty. "A good speech isn't one where we can prove that we're telling the truth," Sir Humphrey Appleby once reminded James Hacker, "it's one where nobody else can prove we're lying."
Few, if any, moral philosophers would admonish
Few, if any, moral philosophers would admonish
Nesting
Expectant cats, rodents, birds, and dogs develop a marvelous burst of manic energy to ready their "nests" just prior to childbirth. This may mean nothing to you, but means a lot to me.
By a quirk of evolutionary fate, human beings are often proud of being different from even our closest cousins in that chimps don't have the ability to reason. Hard as it is for us to imagine, nevertheless, the nesting instinct encoded in the nucleotides of our feathered or four-legged friends of
By a quirk of evolutionary fate, human beings are often proud of being different from even our closest cousins in that chimps don't have the ability to reason. Hard as it is for us to imagine, nevertheless, the nesting instinct encoded in the nucleotides of our feathered or four-legged friends of
Lecture
I have been giving a number of lectures recently. This is not to say that lecture is effective teaching. It almost never is. Some people like me, I have to say, don't do well during lectures and quickly doze off.
As far as education is concerned, nonetheless, lectures are forever the default mode and practicum little more than a footnote. Indeed, nearly 80 percent of college courses are simply lectures by professors, in a way that you may have been sleeping through most of the time
As far as education is concerned, nonetheless, lectures are forever the default mode and practicum little more than a footnote. Indeed, nearly 80 percent of college courses are simply lectures by professors, in a way that you may have been sleeping through most of the time
Taxi
Of all teachings given by the emotion intelligence guru Daniel Goleman, none is more important than that of the almond-shaped amygdala in an area of the human brain called the limbic system. Disgust, fear and anger, it is said time and again, come from the amygdala which acts like a central alarm system calling for a full-fledged "fight or flight" response.
My recent lectures in Beijing brought back the nineteen-year-old memory of my first (this is my second) visit of Beijing.
My recent lectures in Beijing brought back the nineteen-year-old memory of my first (this is my second) visit of Beijing.
Emotion
This month, a special issue of Science magazine published over 10 papers, written by a total of 47 authors from 10 countries, covering the discovery of an extraordinary 4.4 million-year-old hominid fossil skeleton known as Ardipithecus ramidus .
Of course, I don't have a whiff of paleoanthropology knowledge to discuss how our ancestors ended up walking on two legs. Still, I must admit, evolution is always a fascinating subject. I've been reading recently about the evolutionary root of our
Of course, I don't have a whiff of paleoanthropology knowledge to discuss how our ancestors ended up walking on two legs. Still, I must admit, evolution is always a fascinating subject. I've been reading recently about the evolutionary root of our
Grief
Of all the diseases doctors need to be afraid of, spontaneous fracture of an aging Littmann Cardiology II stethoscope is near the bottom of the list. Unless, that is, the stethoscope belongs to you who are seeing patients.
It was a busy Friday afternoon, with packed schedules including unit meeting and clinic, and many patients were coming in from the emergency room. This time, I thought I could feel my stomach tighten when I heard a painful yell of my stethoscope tubing, which was broken into two pieces. When
It was a busy Friday afternoon, with packed schedules including unit meeting and clinic, and many patients were coming in from the emergency room. This time, I thought I could feel my stomach tighten when I heard a painful yell of my stethoscope tubing, which was broken into two pieces. When
Linus
"It's reassuring to believe that circumstances are against you and that you would write a lot if only your schedule had a few more big chunks of time to devote to writing," says Paul J. Silvia, one of the psychologists who received the Berlyne Award. In How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing , Silvia helps me see that this barrier, like most false beliefs, persists because it's comforting. I opened this book at random during my recent visit to City
Teaching
Ever had a bad luck that dooms your day? And as if that's not enough, your friends or classmates are highflying, and that can demoralize you indeed. After recent discussion among our colleagues and students, I'm convinced that taking a look at these bad luck theories can help.
The bad luck theory is one all-important law of human destiny. If we obey the bad luck theory, we shall almost be sure to get into endless trouble. The bad luck theory goes like this: "
The bad luck theory is one all-important law of human destiny. If we obey the bad luck theory, we shall almost be sure to get into endless trouble. The bad luck theory goes like this: "
Insane or In Synch
A man was about to stand up from his chair near the end of clinic consultation, when he asked me about his kidney problem. It's around lunch time on a rainy Monday, and after seeing 16 patients, I was wondering if I missed to make abundantly clear that his diabetes mellitus hasn't caused any complications.
"No, not at all. Not even a trace of protein in your urine. Let me repeat: your kidney function is perfectly fine," I explained in a professional manner
"No, not at all. Not even a trace of protein in your urine. Let me repeat: your kidney function is perfectly fine," I explained in a professional manner