Matthew's Blog
Risk and Simplicity
In the pre-op room, surgeons will sign the extremity they will be operating on to avoid the big mistake of operating on the contralateral (other, i.e. wrong!) extremity. In the photo above you can see is my surgeon’s signature just prior to a my left hip joint...
Curiosity, Rudeness, and My Emotional A-Game
If I’m on my “Emotional A-Game” and someone is rude to me (cuts me off in traffic, is condescending, has a mean twitter comment, etc), then I’m able to approach them with a curiosity mindset: Why are they rude to me?What did I do to contribute to this?How are they...
On Woo-Woo
Woo-woo is a term I’ve run across which I’ve heard people use about going over the top with a certain form of spirituality. I often see use it to describe writers and bloggers who refer to spiritual aspects of yoga, meditation, affirmations, prayer, muses, and the...
Reading is not Writing.
Reading is not writing. Both require sustained attention, both require skill with language, and both require an expenditure of intellectual energy. Yet even deep reading—with pencil and highlighter in hand, physically engaging with an article, poem, or book-—is mostly...
Writing With an Infinite Game Mindset
I’ve discussed writing as an infinite game before on my blog, usually just as a side note (Infinite Games—Solitaire Anyone? and Kaizen, Infinite Games, or “Just Playing Around A Little”?). But I now realize that an infinite game mindset is critical for my success as a...
PHP Website Upgrades, Writing, and Curiosity
The other day a fell into a curiosity rabbit hole. I received an email from my website host that my website service may be limited for a short time in two weeks due to an upgrade to PHP 8.0 (PHP is the server-side computer language that powers most websites). They...
The Dangerous Deification of STEM
Let's consider these quotes about scientists from Nietzsche's Essay, David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer: An honest natural scientist believes that the world conforms unconditionally to laws, without however asserting anything as to the ethical or intellectual...
My Weekly Writer’s Twitter Surge
About once a week, I load up my most commonly used writers' hashtags on Tweetdeck, and I spend twenty minutes or so commenting upon, retweeting, and liking about 20 tweeters' tweets. Most of these people I will also follow. I call this my weekly Writer’s Twitter...
Why I Love My Blog
Looking at my blog critically, I can say the following things: The content is average, with only rare (once per month?) moments of deep insight.The writing is average.Taken as a whole, it is unfocused. So, with all of this mediocrity going on, why do I love my blog?...