Sharing what I have learned from what I have read: A blog by Joe Abittan
Our society makes fun of the unrealistic optimist all the time, but the reality is that most of us are unreasonably optimistic in many aspects of our life. We might not all believe that we are going to receive a financial windfall this month, that our favorite sports team will go from losing almost all … Continue reading Nudges for Unrealistic Optimism
A taboo tradeoff occurs when we are faced with the dilemma of exchanging something that we are not supposed to give up for money, food, or other resources. Our time, attention, energy, and sometimes even our happiness are perfectly legitimate to trade, but things like health and safety generally are not. We are expected to … Continue reading Taboo Tradeoffs
"Only a handful of outlier health problems are preventable in any real sense," writes Dave Chase in his book The Opioid Crisis Wake-Up Call, "about seven percent, according to my colleague, Al Lewis." My last post was about the cost of outliers, how just a small percentage of patients account for a huge percentage … Continue reading Outlier Wellness
One problem with healthcare in the United States is that consumers don't control their data and the information about them. Even the employers of healthcare consumers, who are paying for the services provided to patients and often responsible for whether patients have healthcare coverage at all, don't have access to any of the healthcare data … Continue reading Hospital Safety & Data
I'm a super early morning person and I have been since high school, but I was definitely a bit of an anomaly in high school and throughout college. Most high school students, not necessarily through their own poor decision-making or bad habits, go to sleep a lot later at night and don't wake up very … Continue reading Start High School After 8 A.M.
I have heard people, television show hosts, and family members make the argument that black communities are not over policed or over arrested because black people support the levels of policing that take place in their communities. I have heard the argument that confederate symbols really are not a problem because a famous black celebrity … Continue reading The Safety Myth
In his book The Most Good You Can Do, Princeton professor Peter Singer introduces the idea that the world is improving and becoming a less dangerous place as we become more globalized, and as effective altruists and average citizens make greater efforts to help those who are the most disadvantaged. Singer states, “If the world seems … Continue reading An Artifact of the Media