Electrifying Excellence Sheep

your Saturday roundup

Professionally, I focus on creating social benefit startups. In my Saturday morning emails I share what I’m learning and thinking. Topics range from better living and parenting to business and philosophy.

1. The Real Medical Error. When you hear about medical error you probably think more about clinical mistakes made with individual patients. After reading the book Blind Spots, I’m going to think more often of errors made by doctors sitting in a conference room formulating recommendations for lots of patients. Written by the surgeon, Marty Makary, known for creating the The Surgical Checklist (read about it in The Checklist Manifesto). Blind Spots covers a surprising number of cases of incorrect dogma or opinion staying in place too long. Time to review the list of cognitive biases and consider them alongside the study of power. To be clear, having incorrect theories about the world is the normal state. The problem comes when we don’t accept a better theory, we mislead people about the evidence we have or if we undermine institutions that help us correct errors. Examples of the times the medical establishment got it wrong covered in the book include:

   1. The official APA recommendation from 2000 for young kids to avoid peanuts which likely increased peanut allergies and was not reversed until 2017. Was the original recommendation based on enough evidence?

   2. He says fear about hormone replacement therapy for menopause increasing breast cancer was caused by a study that did not show the results claimed.

   3. Blood banks took years to adopt a cheap HIV screening test for donated blood.

   4. Relying on surgery to treat appendicitis when antibiotics often work.

   What is he questioning next? He raises issues with adding fluoride to the drinking water (no, not like Dr. Strangelove) and having one organization set curriculum standards for all US medical schools.

   

2. Electricity Prices. Living in the state with the 5th most expensive electricity, I am wondering, why isn’t electricity cheaper? Underlying fossil fuel prices went up but have come down some. Possible causes include:

   1. Poor government policy / regulation? For example, it should be easier to add more solar and nuclear capacity.

   2. Paying off Covid relief policies? I’m not sure what the cost was of allowing customers to not pay their bills during the pandemic.

   3. Maintenance on an aging electric grid? I’m not clear the amount of investment going into infrastructure right now.

   4. Could projected data center demand keep prices high? Seems unlikely to me.

3. What is School For? As a parent, what is the function of school? (It’s Job to Be Done so to speak.) Please quantify if you have multiple answers among the following. Given your answer, why do you choose your school over unschooling, less schooling or truly student-led learning? Is it a collective illusion or something else? 

   1. Teach core subjects (reading, writing and math)

   2. Teach other subjects (What was the most important thing you learned at school?)

   3. Socialize kids

   4. Supervise kids (aka babysitting)

   5. Signal (or sort) students for employers

   6. Sponsor sports teams

   7. Train “factory” workers (show up on time, listen to authority, etc.)

   8. Train knowledge workers (research, computer skills, deadlines, etc.)

   9. Instill nationalism

   10. Ensure educated voters for better governance

   11. Other:

Until next time,

Miles