Why not the best?

What Hacker News says

1. hayst4ckMar 2025
   Rickover famously asked Jimmy carter in an interview: "Did You Do Your Best?"

   Carter replied: "No, sir, I didn’t always do my best."

   And Rickover asked "why not?"

   This significantly impacted Jimmy Carter and eventually became the title of a book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/645520.Why_Not_the_Best_

   I think GP is probably pattern matching a bit too much. It's plausibly connected, but I doubt it.

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2. mpyneAug 2022
   USS Jimmy Carter was named after the former President because Jimmy Carter was himself a submarine officer, and during his Navy service used his nuclear training to assist in the cleanup and recovery of a nuclear accident in Canada.

   He considered his time as a nuclear submarine officer so formative that a question to him from the Admiral in charge of Naval Reactors, Hyman Rickover, formed the title of his book "Why Not the Best?" [1]

   President Carter was well-aware that the submarine was named after him and why, and stated himself how proud he was to have a submarine named after him. [2] Not just a submarine either; the Seawolf class is still among the most capable ever built by the U.S., and the Jimmy Carter (with her "special projects" upgrades) is the most capable of the entire class.

   [1] https://www.amazon.com/Why-not-best-Jimmy-Carter/dp/08054558... [2] https://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/04/27/carter.sub/

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3. Alex3917Sep 2012
   "Lots of my patients have poor medical literacy"

   I mean this is obviously true for the larger population. Studies show that 90 million Americans can't even understand the directions on their prescriptions. But that recommendation was meant for the HN readers, most of whom can at least read and understand trade books.

   "What's the recommendation then? Stay at home the next time something happens to your health?"

   No, but I but I think the least you can do is to try to get in and out in a timely manner, rather than dawdling around for an extra day or two.

   Also, if you actually learn to manage your health conditions you shouldn't need to be in the ER very often in the first place, unless you break your leg or something and you clearly need to go.

   Also, hospitals are starting to be required to report some basic data now so consumers can make more educated decisions about where to go.

   And lastly, you can look up the statistics about how good hospitals are at treating different things in general. For example, according to the Commonwealth Fund report from last year ("Why Not The Best?"), hospitals have gotten much better at treating heart attacks in the last five years. Granted, you'd still need to go to the ER if you were having a heart attack anyway, but at least you know now that you have a 96% chance of getting evidence based medicine going in.

   "Hospitals aren't great, so therefore they're death camps."

   Well I mean it's not like I'm making this up, it's what the IOM and the AMA are saying. As well as the Commonwealth Fund, the NEJM, and basically every other credible source.

   Having read How Doctors Think and other similar books, I realize that much of medicine is very difficult, and there are good reasons for why things go wrong sometimes. But at the same time, doctors really shouldn't be cutting off the wrong limbs and giving people the wrong dosages of medicine on a daily basis.

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