Happy official first day of summer from the Last Homely House! Also, happy belated Father’s Day to the Dads, and happy belated Juneteenth to all Americans! I’m always a day (or three) late and a dollar short, I’m afraid. What do you think of my picture, Still life with Pear and Car? I feel like this could hang alongside some of the Dutch masters.
This is the last week of my online US Health Systems course. These courses just wiz by - but it is hard to believe that the spring semester ended four weeks ago already. I’ll be starting internship site visits next week because some of the kids started the week after classes let out - so that will be the midpoint for their internships. As I’ve said in the past, this is one of the highlights of my summer - getting to see the kids in action and hearing all the great things the preceptors have to say. I hope you have fun plans this summer, too.
See you Sunday with a new essay. As usual, willing good for all of you!
Read
What: Pocket, Your Speech Is Packed With Misunderstood, Unconscious Messages
Why: I was telling my wife I was frustrated with how often I “ah” and “um” when I talk. There’s nothing worse than recording yourself and then listening back to hear all your verbal “disfluences” as the article tells me they are called. It’s hard to listen to someone who uses a lot of disfluences in their speech, especially when it is recorded. I think I am especially cognizant of disfluences with recorded speech - but I don’t know if that is a thing, or just my thing. Anyway, it is interesting to know that these disfluences have a purpose.
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What: HBR, The Telehealth Era Is Just Beginning
https://hbr.org/2022/05/the-telehealth-era-is-just-beginning
Why: I am a huge fan of telehealth. I see it as a technological means of greatly reducing healthcare costs while improving access and sustaining quality. This is a very good article looking at the challenges and opportunities. The main problem is the incentives captured in the status quo:
[I]n many countries, barriers in the form of regulations, payment regimes, and patient acceptance remain. Any nation seeking to raise health care quality, increase access, and lower costs should be expanding, not contracting, the use of virtual care.
One of my students from my US Health Systems class this summer found this article and shared it with me.
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Watch
What: Arthur C. Brooks Aspen Ideas Festival 2022, How to Want Less (49 min)
Why: Ignore the title. It makes it sound like, “How to be poor and happy”, which is not the point of the video. I really like Brooks work on happiness. I’ve written about his book, From Strength to Strength in a previous RWL (it also includes a recipe for how to make a Basque cheesecake - talk about happiness!) and recommend it. This video captures some of the essence of his discussion of happiness. Specifically his formula,
Satisfaction = What you have / What you want
What I really like about this equation is you don’t have to shrink what you have - you don’t have to be poor - you just have to be better targeted with what you want. I’m going to write a Being in the World essay on this topic soon, so I’m going to stop there. But you should do yourself a favor and listen to the video (you don’t have to watch it - you can get 90% from listening if you don’t have time to sit and watch it).
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Listen
What: After Hours, The Portfolio Life: Being Productive and Happy (44 min)
Link (something is funky with sharing podcast links this week)
Why: I have been preparing to write something about thinking of your life as a portfolio for BITW and I was pleased to listen to this podcast this morning. I’ve ordered Christina Wallace’s new book The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card, so I will definitely let you know what I think once I have a chance to read it. The gist is that we invest our time in multiple streams, and that we should consider the value each of them give to us. I think, like me, she believes in diversification of interests. She talks about diversifying income streams, but that is difficult for most people, so she also talks about diversifying your efforts. Sometimes side-interests can lead to new economic opportunities, but often they can enhance your performance in your day job. Creativity is often remixing ideas from unrelated streams. Steve Jobs is a great example - he was obsessed with computers and graphic design and that remix was (and still is) the spirit of Apple. Worth a listen.
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What: The Tim Ferriss Show, David Maisel of Marvel Studios Fame (153 min)
link (something is funky with sharing podcast links this week)
Why: if you are not familiar with Tim Ferriss, he does long podcasts, but he often has really interesting guests. David Maisel is very interesting. Maisel created the Marvel Universe inside of the Marvel corporation, which at the time was primarily a toy company. The things that I found especially interesting were the discussions of the production process and financing, but there is a lot here.