Quotes from Atul Gawande

I managed to find exactly one scientific study assessing whether or not luck actually does go bad on Friday the thirteenth.

told her that things had taken a turn for the worse, and asked her to come in.

It is not death that the very old tell me they fear. It is what happens short of death—losing their hearing, their memory, their best friends, their way of life. As Felix put it to me, "Old age is a continuous series of losses.

In the course of a normal lifetime, the muscles of the jaw lose about 40 percent of their mass and the bones of the mandible lose about 20 percent, becoming porous and weak. The ability to chew declines, and people shift to softer foods, which are generally higher in fermentable carbohydrates and more likely to cause cavities. By the age of sixty, people in an industrialized country like the United States have lost, on average, a third of their teeth.

In the end, people don't view their life as merely the average of all of its moments — which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story.

Could a computer outperform an experienced specialist?

Staying at home is recommended.

We said the medicines we gave him may have contributed to it.

They believe in practice, not talent.

You would need to see consistently bad results across a number of studies to be convinced. And that has yet to be shown.

As medical progress has extended our lives, the result has been what's called the "rectangularization" of survival.

Our concerns and desires may shift. But whatever happens, we want to retain the freedom to shape our lives in ways consistent with our character and loyalties.

Still, I told myself, you really can't make much of one study of one Friday the thirteenth in one town.

She considered my request for a moment.

I asked Thomas what his special technique for sales was as a kid. He said he didn't have any. It was simply that "I was willing to be rejected. That's what allows you to be a good salesperson. You have to be willing to be rejected." It

Mainstream doctors are turned off by geriatrics, and that's because they do not have the faculties to cope with the Old Crock," Felix Silverstone

In a fire, the metal can plasticize—lose its stiffness and bend like spaghetti. This was why the World Trade Center buildings collapsed

Even totally random patterns will often appear non-random to us.

It used to be 'Two hip replacements today—yay!'" he recalled. "Then it became 'Two hip replacements today—ugh.

created a new difficulty for mankind: how to die. *

Skill, surgeons believe, can be taught; tenacity cannot.

the cost of an operation is about half of what it is elsewhere.

Drug and medical device companies offered invitations to free dinners around town nightly. And there were over five thousand three hundred salespeople from some twelve hundred companies registered in attendance here—more than one for every two surgeons. The

Indeed, the most important talent may be the talent for practice itself.