RWL Newsletter #104
Happy New Year, friends! And wow! All the new subscribers! Thanks for signing up – I hope you find this information valuable, and feel free to e-mail or tweet me either interesting things you are finding or just general feedback. I always appreciate that.
I finished reading Cicero’s De Officiis (“On Obligations”) a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been thinking about it a lot. It’s a beautiful book. I wish I could read the original, but sadly I was not a very good Latin student in high school, and that was 30 years ago. You can get access to a free on-line or e-reader version here:
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/cicero-on-moral-duties-de-officiis
But I really recommend this translation: https://www.amazon.com/Obligations-Officiis-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199540713/
The book is ostensibly a letter to his son. I guess open letters were a thing back in 42 BCE, too. Except this one is 126 pages long. You probably wouldn’t get many Facebook likes with that. An important theme of the first “book” (the first 40 pages or so) is the idea of finding your calling, or what the Cicero (through the translator) calls “fitting”. Here’s a short quote:
So when investing in this notion of fitting, we must mentally grasp and reflect on all these aspects. But above all we must establish who and what kind of person we wish to be, and what pattern of life we wish to adopt. This is the most difficult decision of all to reach, for it is when we are on the threshold of manhood, at a time when our powers of judgement are at their weakest, that we each opt for the kind of lifestyle which appeals to us most.
I think of my students who don’t really know anything about healthcare, but have committed to a degree in healthcare administration. I’ve written more about this section of the book here https://recegg2.blogspot.com/2018/12/2000-year-old-career-advice.html
After reading Cicero and being reminded why the classics are in fact classics – that they speak to something fundamental in our humanity – I decided one of my New Year’s resolutions would be to read a classic of Western thought (i.e., a book on philosophy or history that is at least 1,000 years old) each month in 2019. I’ve started Livy’s History of Rome and I am impressed with how well his humor and humanity still resonate after 2000 years. I have another book by Cicero, On The Good Life, and I plan to read Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and Augustine’s Confessions. After that, not sure.
Good luck on your New Year’s resolutions. I’m also back on my diet and trying to run more. We’ll see how that goes. Reading old books seems so much easier.
(Photo above is of the Cape Neddick Light House in York, Maine. Also known as the Nubble Light House. It’s a 30 second exposure I took just after sunset.)
Read
What: IdeasTED, What can we learn from people who succeed later in life? By Albert-László Barabási
https://ideas.ted.com/what-can-we-learn-from-people-who-succeed-later-in-life/
Why: Is it too late to be a break out success in your field at age 50? I hope not, as I’m on the cusp of that age, and I have only just begun to study my field (careers). Barabási gives me some hope in this article. He talks about Q factor, which predicts whether you will be successful in your career or not. I think this resonates with my understanding of Ciceronian fit. But Barabási says it a little differently. He also gives credence to grit and luck. No determination and experimentation, no success. But age doesn’t matter. Yay for that!
Watch
What: Wall Street Journal, Didn't Get the Job? The Robots May Not Have Liked Your Social Media Activity (5 min)
https://www.wsj.com/video/didnt-get-the-job-the-robots-may-not-have-liked-your-social-media-activity/94228433-78FE-4BA3-939C-B6B15690FB58.html
Why: As this video notes, it’s commonly known that employers will Google-stalk applicants and check out their social media footprint. But that implies some sort of casual screening by a human being scrolling through your Facebook and Twitter feeds to see if you’ve posted any overtly offensive statements, or drunk selfies. The company in this video is using analytic capabilities to process the language you use in your posts to develop a personality profile. They claim to be able to tell if you are an introvert or extravert, for example, based on your language. They use the DISC personality test, which you can take for free yourself here https://www.123test.com/disc-personality-test/ This is the future of recruiting. Maybe not this particular company’s tool, but tools like this.
Listen
What: a16z Podcast: The Infrastructure of Total Health with Bernard J. Tyson (49 min)
https://a16z.com/2018/12/22/bernard-tyson-ben-horowitz-kaiser-healthcare-summit/
Why: Tyson is the CEO of Kaiser-Permanente. Kaiser-Permanente is one of the original HMOs, and currently had 12.2 million covered members. It is, in my opinion, the model that the ACA was designed to bring about. This is a good discussion of a wide range of relevant healthcare topics, from incentives and capitation to community and mental health.
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 by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
Have a great weekend and do amazing things!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant 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
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau