Better
Explores the efforts of physicians to close the gap between best intentions and best performance in the face of insurmountable obstacles, discussing such topics as the ethical considerations of lethal injections, malpractice, and surgical errors.
Stats for nerds
12recommend
21mentions
19people
2009–2022years
62% recommend38% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Atul Gawande - Better or Being Mortal
Non-technical but very interesting and emotive to most people.
Healthcare analytics
- And I'll add Atul Gawande's “Better” and “Complications” on general surgery in particular and medicine in general.
- I've read most of Atul Gawande's books about the medical industry (Better, Complications, and The Checklist Manifesto) and I found the three of them extremely relevant to my career as a computer scientist. The latter book is by far his most famous, but IMHO the other two are much better.
This is a bold choice by Amazon, but it seems like a good idea even if it's just for name recognition.
- Somewhat related, I thought Atul Gawande's take on why C. Sections are so common now was fascinating. It's all in his book "Better: A Surgeon's notes on performance" but I've linked to a summary of the obstetrics section below.
Relevant passage:
"In the 1960s fewer than 5 percent of deliveries were Cesareans and more than 40 percent involved forceps. And those numbers are related. Gawande makes a strong case that in the hands of experts, forceps are safe (according to some research, safer for mothers than Cesareans). But forceps are hard to learn to use properly – a process that can take two years. And if forceps are used by inexpert doctors, the results can be disastrous. Cesareans are easier to master. And this has led hospitals to phase out forceps and, in many cases, do C-sections instead. To discourage the inexpert from using forceps, Gawande says, “obstetrics had to discourage everyone from using them.” This change has come at a cost. Gawande notes that, as straightforward as Cesarean deliveries can be, they can go wrong. The baby can be lacerated. If the head doesn’t come free quickly, the child can asphyxiate."
https://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/18/atul-g...
- Non-fiction:
* 'Better' by Atul Gawande (also his 'Complications' and of course 'The Checklist Manifesto')
* 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson.
Fiction:
* 'Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders' by Neil Gaiman
* 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss
Graphic novels ("comics"):
* 'Watchmen' by Alan Moore
* 'Promethea' by Alan Moore (actually I'm halfway through this, and loving every bit of it)
Special mentions:
* 'How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big' by Scott Adams - I only gave this a 4-star rating on Goodreads when I finished it, but I'm finding that I'm usefully applying more and more of the things I learnt from this book as the months go by.
* 'Yoga Benefits Are in Breathing Less' by Artour Rakhimov - to be considered more of an article, taught me useful stuff about O2/CO2 balance in the body, their respective effects, and hence ultimately the effects of different rates of breathing.
- 1. "Meditations" – Marcus Aurelius
2. "The Practicing Mind" – Thomas Sterner
3. "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance" – Atul Gawande (I'm not a surgeon; the principles herein are universal)
(honorable mention: "How to Win Friends and Influence People" – Dale Carnegie; various biographies by Caro and Chernow)
