Not acting is doing something
Interesting interview today on BBC Radio 5 Live with the Neurologist Dr Allan Ropper. They were talking to him about his work, including his treatment of the actor Michael J Fox’s tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease.
Here’s what he had to say.
Coping with errors and mistakes.
“…it is difficult, with time and experience it becomes less wearing, there’s less fear of an error. Errors are inevitable. [We’re] decision making machines. You can’t always be right – once you absorb and internalise that, it’s easier to get on.”
“If people doing brain surgery can cope with errors and mistakes and still get on, why can’t we.”
Thinking the way you’ve always thought can lead you into trouble.
“There’s no way to get it right every time (as a physician) – even though there’s a secular popular notion that that’s the expectation of physicians.”
Not acting is doing something.
“We decided not to act. The lesson there is that not acting is doing something too.”
Working as a designer is nothing like being a Neurologist accept for, apparently, when it is. We’re all decision making machines. No matter how good your training or experience, there is really no way of getting everything right first time.
What struck me is that choosing not to do something needs to be deliberate.
What we don’t do should be as considered as what we choose to invest our time and energy in doing.
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