RWL Newsletter #79 - farewell edition
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! Picture above is Main St., Durham, taken from the corner of UNH campus. I swear, you blink, and break is over. We're back to classes starting Tuesday. I'm looking forward to the spring semester - I have smaller, more intimate classes, and I will be teaching fun stuff - introduction to financial management and organizational behavior.
Over the break, I took some time to reflect on my various projects and have decided to discontinue RWL. It's been a good discipline for me to write a weekly newsletter for almost two years, but I think I could use the time better on some other projects. I've been reflecting a lot on the idea that I should substitute, "It's not a priority" for "I'm too busy." Thus, this will be the last edition of the letter. If you'd like to stay in touch, please follow me on twitter at @bonicatalent.
Those of you who know me personally know I do a lot of experiments like this. I like to think I am following Nassim Taleb's anti-fragility model - exploring low-risk, high-potential opportunities. But this kind of experiment isn't like a clever financial investment. It is also an experience and a possibility for personal growth. It is low risk in the fact that it did not take all that much time for me to produce and it had zero financial cost (Tinyletter is a free service). On the pay off side, it had the possibility of connecting me to people I didn't know, a thing I value highly, and it had the possibility of keeping me in touch with people I do know, another thing I value highly. But even if no one read the letter, the process of producing it was intrinsically valuable: it provided a discipline (as I said above) to look for interesting media that I could relate to my teaching of healthcare management. RWL grew out of an effort I was making to keep in touch with my advisees back in the summer of 2016, so that they would not come back as sophomores thinking no one from UNH had thought about them all summer, and so that they might possibly start to engage in a process of becoming life-long learners. I stumbled on the idea of providing something to read, something to watch, and something to listen to, and then I codified it. It occurred to me that I could formalize RWL using Tinyletter, a technology I was aware of. A lot of my innovations come from learning about technologies and then thinking about how I could use them. This was one of those times. And now, I think the experiment has run its course. I encourage you to consider experimenting with things that are low-risk and have high potential. Experiments are fun and keep life interesting!
So without further ado, here are the last recommended links:
Read
What: NYT, Inside One of America’s Last Pencil Factories
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/magazine/inside-one-of-americas-last-pencil-factories.html
Why: This is a photo essay of a pencil factory. As someone trained as a free market economist, we often talk about the complexity of markets and what they are capable of. The pencil, a product of profound simplicity, is often used as a metaphor for how markets are capable of handling complexity. Think about it: could you or anyone you know produce a pencil on her/his own? And I mean, starting from scratch, not having all the components handed to you. That's the genius of I, Pencil by Leonard Reed. I, Pencil is a bit longer than what I usually point to for this newsletter, but if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It is humbling to realize how complex our economy actually is when you are confronted with producing even a simple object like a pencil, never mind complex services like healthcare.
Watch
What: "If You Don't Have TIME, You Don't Have PRIORITIES!" - Timothy Ferriss (@tferriss) Top 10 Rules
https://youtu.be/8rnno7Mi1DQ?t=1m6s
Why: I've cited Ferriss a number of times. He's a best selling author and podcaster who focuses on improving personal performance. I think this video boils down some of his best advice to a few key points. I particularly like #2, start small, which I try to use myself, especially when I feel overwhelmed, and #7, schedule your time, which I need to do a better job of. I think I'll pass on #10, acroyoga, but it's important to get some sort of exercise regularly.
Listen
What: Health Leader Forge, Mary Lowry, Administrative Director, Center for Telehealth, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
http://healthleaderforge.blogspot.com/2018/01/mary-lowry-administrative-director.html
Why: If you would like to know what the future of healthcare looks like, this is a sneak peek. Usually I spend a lot of time in my interviews talking about the guest's career. This interview is almost entirely about how telemedicine works today. You may have heard about different services you can get on your iPhone. That's small potatoes compared to the revolution Mary tells me about. DHMC sells its services to other hospitals - a B2B model (business to business), rather than a B2C (business to consumer) model. I am convinced this is the future. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading over the last (almost) two years. While I won't be producing RWL anymore, I am always interested in seeing cool articles, videos, and podcasts. Feel free to drop me a line by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @bonicatalent .
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter, and I wish you well!
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
Twitter: @bonicatalent
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau