RWL #238
ping-pong, for-profit medical schools, brute luck, and more!
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! My site visits took me to the North Country of New Hampshire this week - to North Conway and Berlin. I had a chance to check on a student who is interning with Art Mathisen at Memorial Hospital, and another student interning with Mike Peterson at Androscoggin Valley Hospital. Since I was already up there, I decided to go north a bit further and camp out for the night at Mollidgewok State Park in Errol, NH. The night was chilly, and so in the morning the river was covered in mist and it made for a beautiful paddle. I love Mollidgewok - I hope to go back for a couple more days before summer ends and it gets too cold. I definitely recommend it if you are in the area and can get away.
I’ve decided to take a few weeks’ break from writing RWL. I plan to resume after school starts - probably the first weekend in September. I feel like I need a little time off to think about my next steps professionally. I’ve had such a busy summer that I really haven’t had the time. Getting tenure gives me an opportunity to take a tactical pause and refocus. I just need to do it. So I’ll see you in a month! Until then, enjoy the links and stay well!
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Read
What: FastCompany, RIP ping-pong. The era of wacky office perks is dead
Why: The Army was never big on fun perks like ping pong tables in the office, so I’ve never really experienced these kinds of office spaces. But now they might be going away in favor of something more basic - but I think a lot harder to create.
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What: NPR Health News, For-Profit Medical School Proposed In Montana Sparks Concerns
Why: One of my students in my Health Systems class found this article about for-profit medical schools. Once upon a time it was quite common for medical schools to be for-profit. We have a shortage of physicians in the US. One way to make healthcare less expensive is to expand the supply of physicians. Could for-profit medical schools be part of the solution?
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What: ProPublica, Operation Fox Hunt: How China Exports Repression Using a Network of Spies Hidden in Plain Sight
Why: This is a long but fascinating piece about how the Chinese Communist Party exerts pressure on emigrants who are part of the Chinese diaspora - including in the US. It’s a great account of spy craft, and how the CCP ruthlessly uses threats against family members still living in China to pressure individuals who are living abroad to participate in the CCP’s efforts to export repression.
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Watch
What: TED, Dan Pallotta, The way we think about charity is dead wrong
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong
Why: Pallotta makes an argument that we should not focus on a charity’s overhead percentage. It’s a convincing argument in my opinion.
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Listen
What: Free Thoughts, Libertarianism and Egalitarianism
https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/libertarianism-egalitarianism
Why: From the transcript: “The basic idea of egalitarianism is inequalities that result from no choice or faults of your own are unjust and ought to be rectified in some way.” How do we do this without taking away people’s ability to choose and benefit from their own choices, while holding them responsible for bad outcomes? The discussion centers on the difference between option luck and brute luck.
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What: The Good Fight, Saving Meritocracy
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/saving-meritocracy/id1198765424?i=1000530586340
Why: There is a certain derision of meritocracy that is becoming popular - in particular because there is an argument that meritocracy is false, and more related to brute luck than option luck (see the podcast above). While people who manage to get an Ivy League education can often be unbearably pretentious and entitled, I’m not sure there is a better substitute for meritocracy (and we all know that Ivy League selection is mostly not meritocratic). What makes this discussion interesting is the guest, who is the editor of the Economist magazine, makes the argument that meritocracy can be separated from democracy, but it shouldn’t be. It is being separated in China, enabling the CCP to build itself into a technology powerhouse, while maintaining an authoritarian state. In fact, the advances in technology are being used to help create the most high-tech police state ever. There is a lot more in the interview, all of it interesting.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line at mark.bonica@unh.edu , or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
If you’re looking for a searchable archive, you can see my draft folder here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jwGLdjsb1WKtgH_2C-_3VvrYCtqLplFO?usp=sharing
Finally, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://markbonica.substack.com/welcome
See you next Friday!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Associate Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
"Were there none discontented with what they have, the World would never reach anything better." - Florence Nightingale