Go from burnt out to FIREd up.
It’s the first swell of the autumn that’s above knee high, and I find myself in a lineup in cold water with a handful of dudes. If I had to guess, these surfers constituted what remained of the precocious puberty crowd from high school – they shaved more at age 14 than I do today, and were socially popular – …
I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about what my encore career might look like. Some of that thinking has to do with how to go about deciding on that first action. Do you dip a toe in the water to an interesting idea? Do you commit fully and completely to your best option? How much is the right …
An acquaintance relishes trumpeting his large bet on bitcoin and intent to hold on for dear life to a group of us repeatedly via text. He insists it demonstrates his investing prowess. For proof of his skill, he holds up the considerable increase in value he can demonstrate since he initially invested. When I ask to understand why he invested …
It’s been a brutal time to be in medicine. The start of the pandemic caused an unexpected and precipitous drop in patient volume. Those docs who ran their own practices and relied on elective or non-emergent procedures for their livelihood faced significant adverse financial consequences for the evaporation of their patient base, although the Paycheck Protection Program offset some of …
I’ve been taking a tour through the world of value-based care, which is the most recent place where the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) have changed the rules of the game for reimbursement at the organizational level. Value-based care is defined as as positive health outcomes divided by cost. It’s a new and interesting body of knowledge to learn …
For the past year, my wife has been on a mission to find a reasonably-priced Sunbrella© outdoor patio umbrella. When she began looking early last spring, the world was reeling from a wicked winter COVID spike and it seemed that everyone had the same idea to improve their homes’ outdoor living spaces all at once. We had a frustrating experience …
The title of this post is a quote from the film Juno, a cleverly dismissive bit of venom spoken by the protagonist’s stepmother in a rejection of medical authority. It came to mind today as I listened to a fascinating podcast recalling the history of laetrile in the U.S. during the 1970s. Laetrile was a drug made from the extract …
The most telling sign of aging has become the degree of discomfort I am willing to put up with during travel. A dear friend makes his home in the Andes in Peru, and recently returned from a week-long trek at 17,000 feet of altitude. During his trip, he exceeded the height of Everest base camp at times. We spoke on …
Physicians provide a historically target rich environment for financial predators. We assume our expertise in medicine translates into competence in other spaces, like investing. How do I know? ‘Cause I’m a doctor, that’s how I know!Alternately, we plead ignorance to all other facets of life because we are so darn busy saving lives. Finances? Who has time? Why dirty hands …
As a medical student at UCSF, I attended a two-physician panel intended to orient us to the future we were heading toward before we commenced our third year clinical rotations. One speaker was a gentle-voiced and charismatic academic internist who told us we were joining a tradition of healers who practiced the art of medicine. Mastering the science was necessary …