Human nature

Human nature

Responsibility as a line or a path

Even when we don’t know where certain paths will take us, don’t we often know enough to not start off on them?

Human nature

Call me by my name

My name is Ayomide and I want to talk about names: what they mean, who gets to give them and why all of it matters.

Communication

Why “normal” isn’t useful for describing things

I tell medical students early in our interactions to avoid describing things as "normal" because it's not the useful description they think it is. It can mean two opposite things and that creates problems.

Human nature

How we go from surviving to thriving

We are wired to remember bad experiences and normalise good ones. I was reminded of this recently when reading a review of Apple’s MacBooks that launched late last year. They contained the M1, Apple’s first desktop-class chip based on a decade of custom chips for their “smaller” devices

Human nature

Hanlon’s Razor is a way to be generous

Shaving with Hanlon’s razor about once a week helps me stay generous and avoid cynicism. No, Hanlon isn’t a brand of blade, and it’s certainly not for shaving my beard. It’s a super helpful principle for thinking about why people do what they do. You might

Empathy

Sing the song of your life

There’s a world of difference in how we see ourselves and how others see us. I’ve often been described as intense. I’m the kind of person who tends to come on too strong and speak (or write) too forcefully. Sometimes it’s considered a good thing, and

Communication

Behind every joke, there’s smoke

There are few things more tedious than someone acting in bad faith. You see it all the time on social media. Person A posts and then some other Person B shows up in the replies attacking said tweet. Person A (or some other Person C) then points out how the

Human nature

How uniformity kills unity

We tend to mistake uniformity for unity. Uniformity is about looking the same, while unity is about actually being one.This means that unity is internal: it begins with agreeing on some fundamentals as being most important and then working together to build in alignment with those fundamentals. Uniformity, on

Communication

Dancing at work

One of the favourite parts of my job is when I get to dance with patients and their loved ones. Not literally of course. Read more…

Human nature

Technology is a double-edged sword

Technology makes a lot possible, but at what cost? At the cost of introducing abstraction, which in turn impacts on serendipity and accessibility.

Human nature

How CS Lewis wrote POP

One of the biggest compliments anyone has ever paid me was to say my writing reminded them of CS Lewis. I've written before about he's influenced me more than any other single writer, and I'd like to explore why through one of his most insightful essays: The Inner Ring

Human nature

Say yes, not no

If you’re struggling to say no to something maybe you should try saying yes instead. Not to the same thing, of course! But instead of focusing on what you don’t want, why not focus on what you actually want? Because, let’s face it: every no in one