Why luxury car drivers are the worst, why doctors commit suicide at a staggering pace, why you aren’t rich, and more!

This is TL;DR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) Tuesdays.  I summarize and discuss two articles — one from a blogger, and from one a “traditional news” source.  I also provide links to other blog posts and/or news articles you should read.

This concept is inspired by my father, who sends everyone in the family articles links by email, by my older brother, who sends articles so long I never read them, and my wife, who became tired of me sending her articles, and has been telling me “TL;DR” for years.

This feature has evolved a little over time.  Click here to read all of them.

2 4 Things For You To Read (since I skipped August):

#1: Does Your Personality Affect Your Finances? [Test Inside] from Millenial Money Man– I took the test and was an Entrepreneur (ESTP-T)

#2: Apathy Ends discusses Why You’re Not Rich Yet (Or may never be) — I blame my kids

#3 — Bonus Article — Are rich people more likely to lie, cheat, steal? Science explains the world of Manafort and Gates. — from the Washington Post (paywall)

The most fascinating point in this article is a mention of a study showing that drivers of expensive/luxury cars were more likely to cut people off at stop signs and to ignore pedestrians in cross walks compared to those driving cheap cars.  This confirms what I’ve always thought: BMW drivers are jerks.

#4 — Double Bonus — Lesser-Known Cheap Unlimited Cell Phone Plans With 2GB / 5 GB Data on Every Network over at My Money Blog

I’m looking into switching to Ting Mobile (not mentioned on this list) to save money using an MVNO.  Don’t know what that means?  I’ll post a review in a month and explain it.

2 Things I Read For You

#1

Source: Two Corporate Millenials

Title: 7 Reasons Why I Am Keeping A List Of Failures

Summary: This blogger is tracking failure as a measure of growth, for learning, to stay humble, and to be comfortable with failure to help push them towards new opportunities that may succeed.

Conclusion: Those of us working in emergency departments frequently puzzling, challenging, and sometimes life-threatening situations.  We many times do receive feedback after we’ve taken care of a patient unless it’s negative — there are not a lot of high-fives for correctly diagnosing appendicitis, or for not performing an unnecessary CT scan, or for giving diagnosing someone with chlamydia.  We receive plenty of feedback when we “miss” things (in quotations as not all things diagnosed after-the-fact were able to be diagnosed at the time) or when a patient has a bad outcome, even if not from our own actions.

In fact, “M&M” conferences are common in many aspects of medicine.  These Morbidity and Mortality conferences break down challenging cases in front of a large peer group, usually with the physician(s) involved in the room and listening and providing their own recollections of the care.  In the olden days (and probably still nowadays with surgeons) it was used to tear apart the person who provided care when there was a bad outcome.  Now it’s used for learning and growth, with opportunities to change care in the future and learn from mistakes.  You still walk away feeling like an incompetent schmuck whenever one of your own patient’s is presented, even though things can be presented in a very non-combative way.

It sounds bad, but it’s reassuring to know sometimes that colleagues that are clearly smarter and more experienced than me still sometimes are unsure of things.  When a patient of mine has a bad outcome, I want to know what I can do better next time, even if I did everything right the first time.  It’s the teaching conference I both look forward to and dread the most because it makes me face my limitations and helps me grow — self-reflection is painful, though it’s an important step for all of us.

Read This Also: How To Impress Your Boss

#2

Source: The Washington Post

Title: 84 statues appear on London roofs in a startling suicide-awareness campaign

Conclusion: This article is from ~6 months ago — I saved it then forgot to write about it.  Since then, suicide has had more “awareness” in the U.S. with the suicides of two celebrities, Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade.  I’m fortunate in that suicide has only rarely touched my personal life, but I’m also just reaching the age where suicides start to jump, meaning more of my friends/peers will be in this range.

As a physician, I am in a group with an extremely high risk of suicide — the highest among any profession and twice that of the general population.  I think people underestimate the toll it takes to get into medical school, make it through medical school, find a spot in a residency program, and the stress to do well in residency.  The stress level often goes up a level as a “fully trained” attending. While “stress” alone does not cause suicide, the continuous pressure, self-doubt, and high-stakes that come along with many aspects of the medical profession almost certainly does.

I’ve never lost a friend from the medical field to suicide.  I did lose one friend a long time ago.  We were became friends during the course of a few summers I spent as a camp counselor in college, so it was really a long-distance friendship as I never saw them outside of the camp.  Not long after the last summer I worked there, the person committed suicide.  This person suffered from depression, though I did not know it.  It’s been ~15 years and I still remember how shocked I was to find out, and how sad I was (and still am).  I can only imagine how the family and friends who knew them better feel.

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