Better
by Atul Gawande
Essays on performance in medicine: handwashing, polio eradication, battlefield surgery, malpractice, and the afterword's five suggestions for becoming a 'positive deviant': ask an unscripted question, do not complain, count something, write something, change. The afterword alone justifies the book.
Read it if…
you do skilled work and want to get better at it without a formula.
Skip it if…
you dislike medical detail; the essays are full of it.
Three things you will actually use
- Diligence, doing right and ingenuity: the three requirements.
- Count something you care about.
- Betterment is perpetual labour.
Do this first
Read the afterword first, then count something at work this week.
Our verdict
Read the afterword first.
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