Hi Everyone, Welcome to Out of the Book!
It is great to have you here. I’m not going to lie, it is kinda scary to embark on a new project like this without knowing what to expect. Especially when it’s something you haven’t done before. But as I have seen over and over with content creators and most advice from different authors is that you start to learn when you are at the edge of what you know and out of your comfort zone. So let’s dive in.
At the edge of the knife
The night was cold, as it usually was at that time of the year. He was used to the E.R.'s fast-paced tempo, but nothing had prepared him for this. It was as you could say, a standard procedure. The patient came into the hospital from a costume party where probably after many drinks got into a fight and was stabbed. He was stable, drunk, but stable. The alcohol had numbed him from the pain and also made him chatty. The team cut off the clothes from his torso and started to examine him. He was an average-sized man, about 200 pounds, and there it was, a red open 2-inch slit in his stomach. This would require an examination to ensure the internal organs were fine, the suture and that was it. This could be worse the doctor said to himself. Then they noted the silence, the patient's heart rate skyrocketed, his eyes rolled back and he was unresponsive, his blood pressure barely detectable.
Now the nurses and doctors were racing against the clock, they intubated the patient in an attempt to stabilize him to no avail. They entered the operation room where the doctor took the scalpel and opened him up from ribcage to pubic bone. Then he started to examine layer by layer the patient’s abdomen when an ocean of blood began to burst out. The weapon had entered more than a foot deep into the man’s skin, through the fat, through the muscle, past the intestine, along the left of the spinal column right into the aorta the main artery from the heart.
Now, with a better assessment of the situation another surgeon came to assist in stabilizing the patient. The doctor had never seen anything like this, not since Vietnam. It turns out, he was not wrong, the doctor later found out that the perpetrator had gone to the costume party, disguised as a soldier, with a bayonet.
Overcoming overconfidence
This excerpt that you just read is a retelling of the story at the introduction of Atul Gawande’s book Checklist manifesto. Later in the book the author mentions that the medical staff did everything right, all steps were followed. But they missed a crucial detail, they forgot to ask the patient or the emergency medical team what the weapon was. Luckily the medical team was able to fix the problem and the patient was able to go home the following week.
This story is interesting because it highlights a problem we all face when we become proficient at performing a task. We become overconfident in our abilities and leave ourselves vulnerable in the face of the unexpected.
But how can we fight overconfidence? One of the best ways is to understand what this is and where in our lives it might be more likely to show up.
Confidence bias or the Dunning-Kruger Effect is a human cognitive bias or judgment in which we tend to overestimate our knowledge and abilities. All over the internet, you may find different kinds of advice to overcome this particular tendency. Seek out diverse perspectives and opinions, practice humility, be open to feedback and criticism, or keep things in perspective among others. All of them perfectly sound advice, but, how can any of these apply to the situation at the E.R.?
Each situation is going to be different but one of the best methods to overcome this is to have a curious mindset. To challenge our assumptions and think “what if” there is something I’m missing? Another solution to this was already demonstrated by the author, the power of stories. By trading “war stories” of the different experiences they had in their time on the E.R. they are now able to recall more easily when a situation could deviate from what is normal and be better prepared for the future.
Do you have ways to overcome overconfidence? What strategies have worked for you in your day-to-day life? Leave them in the comments below, I’m curious to know.
Related/Unrelated Links
Shane Parrish is the author of one of the best blogs out there and this article on accelerated learning might pick your interest.
Also, the Harvard Business Review published a while ago a piece about some of the cognitive biases we have as humans and how to outsmart them.
Finally, I leave you with this incredible technology that uses the free 3D software Blender with a volumetric display that creates holograms.
That’s all for today. What did you think about today’s post?
If you enjoyed the content please share around. I would really appreciate it.
Until next time.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Andrés