I got to quote Thomas Jefferson in an essay I wrote for the Pew Research Center’s FactTank blog today: “Who then can so softly bind up the wound of another as he who has felt the same wound himself?” It’s about Lisa Bonchek Adams and the spotlight that has been thrown on the use of […]
The Lake Wobegon effect in health care — and how to fight it
Humans have a tendency to overestimate our abilities and those of people we trust. It’s been called the Lake Wobegon effect, after a mythical place where “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.” It’s a punchline with a dark edge. Consider the following: According to […]
New Year’s resolutions
I think of New Year’s resolutions like birthday wishes — if I tell, they won’t come true. But I’m happy to share my methods and current inspirations: My 3 words for 2010, by Chris Brogan Find a Transcending Purpose to Motivate Your New Year’s Resolution, by Vic Strecher The New Year’s Writing Resolution You Can […]
3 big trends: networks, unbundling, smartphones
Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist, gave a talk at Le Web that touches on health, but even better, provides a framework for thinking about how technology is transforming the world in general: Pew Research has data to back up each of his points on mobile, video, dating, social networking, news gathering, education, our networked lives in general, […]
Hypothesis generator
Thomas Goetz, formerly the executive editor at Wired and currently co-founder of Iodine, interviewed me about the work I’ve done and hope to do. I like his description: my research is a hypothesis generator. I told him some news I haven’t shared publicly before. Full text of the interview: Susannah Fox doesn’t have all the […]
A genomic literacy spiral?
Like many people, I’m intrigued by the 23andme drama. Here’s a quote I scribbled down at Health Foo: The data and genomics revolution is akin to the print revolution. Hundreds of years ago, peasants looked at this converted wine press and asked why we need more Bibles when nobody can read. The printing press triggered a […]
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