Context and Parsimony

My ignorance is monumental and my proportion of know:All_Knowledge continues to shrink. Until such time as consilience is a reality and subliminal learning is confirmed and routine I have no hope of the trend reversing. I can confine myself to a shrinking domain but doing so is intrinsically unsatisfying and reduces me to technician rather than professional.

 

I work in emergency medicine and most of what I see is not emergent. The context, however, teaches parsimony and requires an action orientation. Usually, those who are unwell need admission under the care of some other speciality. It is my sad and often frustrating experience that those working in the receiving specialities have no appreciation of context: of the administrative, cognitive and emotional milieu of an emergency department. I suspect that I am perceived as stupid rather than ignorant with some regularity (von Schiller notwithstanding).

 

I console myself: “When I was 20 I was amazed and disappointed by how ignorant my father was. At 25 I was astonished at how much he had learned in a mere 5 years.”

 

This little rant – if such – was occasioned by the almost obligatory quiz I enter daily with my referrals. More information is not necessarily better: I’d refer them to Gigerenzer, but I suspect they do not have the time.