11 things I know at 37 I wish I'd know at 27. For surgeons and doctors 🧵

RT @adi_kumar1: In 1944 the CIA made The Simple Sabotage Field Manual. A step by step guide to sabotage any organisation. Read the steps….

Barbells and brain surgery. Yesterday I taught our trainees about surgical strategy. How to plan an operation and execute that plan. There was a long silence after my main message. We plan operations in the perfectly wrong way. Skin incision - craniotomy - corridor -

Mistakes are the privilege of the active. Only those who are asleep have a perfect score sheet.

Compounding will make your career. 30 minutes a day of reading and practice will add up to:. - 182.5 hrs year 1.- 912.5 hrs year 5.- 1825 hrs year 10 . For someone to catch-up, they would need to spend 76 days straight honing their craft. A little today means a lot tomorrow.

The person closest to the problem is usually the best person to solve it. Encourage trainees to be autonomous. Sign off on their decisions, but give them the space to formulate and think.

If you can’t beat them talent you can beat them with time. Happy Monday.

I love my secretaries. They gave me a simple filing system to keep us organised. In. Pending. Out. Add a 10 minute catchup each week and we keep things on course. How does your team stay on top of things?

Mastery emerges from deep preparation—understanding anatomy, potential complications, and potential solutions before the first incision. Your mind must be as sharp and precise as your instruments.

"Before carrying water and chopping wood, first be fully here." . Mental preparation precedes physical action. Anticipate each step, visualise potential challenges, and cultivate complete presence.

I just posted the conclusion of the first chapter of the book I am writing in public. Through Simon's story I explore meaning, understanding, belief and our relationship with time. Click the link below if you want to read more 👇🏽

“An individual human existence should be like a river — small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any.

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”. If you’re struggling during surgery it can be a sign of under-preparing. Imagine every complication and its solution. Find victory first, then the scalpel.

My weekly newsletter contains reflections on life as a neurosurgeon. It'll teach you how to own your work and your life. If you're interested, you can sign up here:.

You are going to have extreme highs and lows as a surgeon. Good operations will go bad. Bad operations will turn out OK. Find the lessons and ditch the baggage. Then pass on what you have learnt.

If you're thinking about becoming a surgeon, these 8 minutes are worth listening to.

Watch me write a book in public →

Neurosurgery bends time but it also bends people. In the beginning, I was all potential energy, a coiled spring of enthusiasm barely contained by the narrow banks of my knowledge. I was all future and little present. My head was rarely in the same place as my feet. I see that

40 years. That's how long it took for Copernicus' heliocentric theory of the solar system to take hold. It didn't happen because of over-whelming empirical evidence. It happened because young astronomers found it acceptable and rose to key positions in their field. If you're.