Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
Atul Gawande
Summary
A fascinating book that speaks on the lessons you can learn from patients at the end of their lives, as well as how death should be handled.
Rating: 4/5
Notes
As you grow older, your focus shifts to here and now, to everyday pleasures and the people closest to you
Give the elderly a reason to live and purpose (animals in the nursing home)
Stop treating aging as a medical condition but think about purpose
Autonomy allows to be the authors of our life
The battle of being mortal is retaining the integrity of your life
When talking about end of life care, ask people what’s important to them
Don’t treat people based on a picture but think about their functionality
When talking to patients at the end of life, say ‘I am worried’
What is most important to you? What tradeoffs can you make?
Never accept limitations that stand in the way
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Free E-book download here
Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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Free E-book download here
