Favorite Quotes
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." - HL Mencken
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"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." - Confucius
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"The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease" - Sir William Osler
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" The best test of a person's character is how he or she treats those with less power." - Bob Sutton
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"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them - well, I have others." - Groucho Marx
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
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"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them" - Friedrich Nietzsche
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"Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple." - Charles Mingus
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"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein
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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around." - Talking Heads, Life During Wartime
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"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it." - Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a
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"You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing." - Thomas Sowell
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"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." - HL Mencken
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"If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." - Abraham Maslow
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"A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not to dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves." - Herbie Hancock
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"There are no facts, only interpretations." - Nietzsche
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"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't." - Anatole France
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"In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ====
Nov - 15
Dec - 19
Jan - 21
Feb - 8
Mar -
7 years of Medrants
19 May2009
7 years ago I wrote my first rant. I started this experiment as a lark – a way to personally experience a communication revolution. 7 years ago, few readers had heard of blogs.
What have I learned during those 7 years? First, writing improves when you write almost every day. I probably suffered from writer’s block in the 90s, and now I write easily and often – and not just on this blog.
Second, I understand that ideas matter. I often present ideas that are not fully fleshed, and allow my blogging and your comments to help those ideas mature. The discussion of ideas can improve the concepts.
Third, if you do a reasonable job and are persistent, people start to notice. I have met many people who read my blog, and believe that blogging has helped me have a voice in new areas. My blogging has lead to editorials and commentaries – expanding on ideas that I first broached on this blog.
Finally, I have grown as a scholar. I have written more and thought more carefully about a variety of issues, because I have an avenue to experiment with new ideas. My long term interest in pharyngitis has morphed into a major concern about Lemierre’s syndrome, an infection that I first heard about in the late 90s (while my first pharyngitis paper was published in 1981.) This new concern has stimulated new writings and educational opportunities.
As always I am grateful to you the readers who keep me honest. I would write for less readers (and originally no readers), but having many readers really is a pleasure. That you read this blog stimulates me to continue to think seriously about medicine and health care.
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4 Responses to 7 years of Medrants
DrRich
May 19th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Having just passed my 2-year anniversary as a blogger, I stand in dumbfounded admiration. 7 years is an amazing feat. Congratulations a) for staying with it, and more importantly, b) for your ability to continually enlighten and entertain us readers.
Rich
Neil
May 19th, 2009 at 10:49 am
I always enjoy the insights presented here, and this is one of the blogs that has inspired me to take up blogging for myself. It’s comforting to hear that the writing will improve over time
.
Christian Sinclair
May 22nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
We just had our year anniversary for our sister blogs and are coming up on our 4th year anniversary for the main Pallimed blog. I completely agree that writing on a frequent basis has been very helpful professionally, and the number of interesting people and ideas I have run across by blogging has been fantastic.
I find it to be a nice creative outlet and part of my professional self-care, and not really as a job. Congratulations, Good Job, and Keep It Up!
Thanks for all your insights.
Christian Sinclair
May 22nd, 2009 at 3:29 pm
BTW you need to update your media recommendations!
I would encourage you to listen to Matt & Kim – “Daylight” and Phoenix either “1901″ or “Lisztomania”