Rachel Botsman's newsletter resonated with me today.
How slow can you go?
What would you like to spend a few more minutes on, that you today rush through?
https://rachelbotsman.substack.com/p/rethink-would-you-be-more-creative
Rethink: Would you be more creative if you learned to slow down?
«Paris Marx is joined by Tim Schwab to discuss why the story we hear about Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation doesn’t reflect their real impact on education and health around the world.
Tim Schwab is an investigative journalist and the author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire.
Tim Schwab: ”I mean, the problem is that this one side of reporting, it’s ended up producing what is essentially misinformation.
It’s a lot of fictions really: this idea that Bill Gates is giving away all his money. That’s not true. His personal wealth is nearly doubled. During his tenure as a philanthropist.
You go to the Gates Foundation’s website, and you’ll see lots of pictures of Black and Brown women and children, the so-called targets of the Gates Foundation’s charitable giving. But if you follow the money, almost all of the foundation’s charitable gifts go to rich nations like the United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom.
So, once you start to really peel back the layers, you realize that a lot of this sort of prevailing news coverage of Gates is telling a story that’s not just one-sided, but just it’s wrong.”»
@HistoPol Scan done and back in waiting room. Went well. Had a conversation with the CT operator about how the note about my allergy only appears in the database for this hospital and if I go somewhere else they may not have access to this info.
This is sadly the state of healthcare in Sweden, and many other countries of course - that the different IT systems don't talk to each other. There's a lot of things to keep track of and report yourself, some of them life critical.
Like the yellow card for vaccinations I would really like to see a small booklet (or other solution) that a patient can carry with them for all this important info. Obviously there are risks with this as well, but it's design challenge I would be interested in tackling.
@HistoPol Thanks. Yes, I'm meeting with the doctor right after the scan and will bring this up. You're right that many people won't be as confident asking questions and calling attention to discrepancies.
I ask for everything in writing and last time one of the nurses wrote a great text for me detailing everything that would happen to me. Otherwise I would not have known myself… 😬
CT-scan today. The nurse who placed my PICC line also took my blood pressure. When detaching the cuff, the pen she had in her hand pressed against my side and drew a long ink line across my new green shirt. Themselves not noticing I pointed out "you just drew a line on my shirt with your pen". They said "I'm really sorry", packed up the stuff and left.
It felt like a weird interaction. And yes, it also wasn't painless.
Now trying to change perspective and have to assume they were very stressed. Lots of things in the interaction felt rough and rushed which would seem to support this.
Anyway. I doubt it will wash out, which made me a little sad. But also, it's just stuff.
#PatientStories
And now I just had to remind the head nurse that I was supposed to get medicine 30 mins ago to address my previous negative reactions to the contrast fluid.*
They had no note of this, searched, found it and thanked me for reminding them. Feels like many are back from their vacation today.
*Supposed to be administered 2 hours before the scan.
#PatientStories
Three days later. I went to leave a blood sample on Tuesday morning (the day after my CT-scan) per instruction by the doctor. He called today wondering why I hadn't. I said I did.
He then found that the requested test got mixed up with another doctor's requests (one I haven't met). The blood I left on Tuesday was tested for something completely different. So I have to go in again tomorrow and leave yet another blood sample. And my arm is bruised where the needle went in.
Closing in on too many weird mixups for comfort now.
#PatientStories
@davor Thank you Davor! 🫶
I'm in the process of preparing for open heart surgery. It's an elaborate procedure where I'll get a new mechanical heart valve and also replace about 6-7 centimeters of the aorta.
This is followed by sick leave and rehabilitation with, among other things, breathing techniques to make sure my lung capacity is restored. It takes about three months for my rib cage to just heal up.
Although I've been aware of my congenital heart defect for a long time, the news of needing an imminent operation came quite suddenly and surprisingly. So how did I end up here?
In this blog post I share my experience up 'til now and the road ahead. The date of the operation is still not set, but expected to be in about a month.
ℹ️ This blog post was first written in Swedish. I've done my best to rewrite it in English in my own voice, not the mediocre voice of any AI tool:
I just re-read this post I wrote about the AI hype in March of last year and it's essentially the same things I would write today.
AI is moving so fast it's timeless 😁
You can also listen to this blog post if you want, as it's one of the ones I voiced as a podcast episode. With sound effects! 🔥
https://axbom.com/ai-responsibility/
I just got one of the most beautiful well-wishes, with an account of how they had gotten to know me through first my panda model and then my writing, a great story about their grandma's heart surgery (including the maxim "Getting old is nothing for cowards") and some truly valuable insights about exertion and recovery.
So yes, I am now crying. In a good way.
And for everyone's wellbeing: I can really recommend starting a blog, even if it's just for yourself or a few close friends. ❤️
@elhult Tack Ludvig! 🫶
@Coveh Thank you Anthony. 🫶
@salixsericea Thank you. 🫶
@chiasm Thank you. 🫶
@iamdavidobrien Thank you David. 🫶
@yatil Thank you Eric. 🫶
@FeralRobots Thank you 🫶
@dsalo Thank you Dorothea. 🫶
