Are you improving every day? Or are you a sheep?

http://pantuso.com/2010/12/04/how-are-you-improving-every-day/

by cincinnatus • 16 years ago

40 26 16 years ago

pantuso.com

safeaim• 16 years ago

Looks interesting, but with all the hyphens it get's kinda nauseating to read the whole text.

endlessvoid94• 16 years ago

Yep, I stopped after that also.

seancron2• 16 years ago

Strangely enough, it's not hyphenated in the source code, just placed within <em> tags.

I wonder what's adding the hyphens. From my quick glance at it, nothing that I saw added hyphens.

Batsu• 16 years ago

There is a CSS property set on all elements. It doesn't seem to be working quite right...

* { text-rendering: optimizelegibility; }

ZeroMinx• 16 years ago

I'm a bit confused by this, I don't see any hyphens (Chrome on Linux). Anyone know what's going on here?

kirubakaran• 16 years ago

Paste this into your address bar:

  javascript:(function(){jQuery('*').css({'text-rendering':'auto'});})();

[Thanks Batsu http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1972150]

cincinnatus3• 16 years ago

Seems to be a browser-specific bug. I see 9 hyphens total on Chrome on Win 7. 8 total on IE 8.

nodata• 16 years ago

False dichotomy.

jamesbritt2• 16 years ago

Exactly. And the idea that "most people are complacent. Sheep, even" is one of those ill-considered ideas foisted on the uncritical.

cincinnatus3• 16 years ago

Calling someone a sheep is a metaphor. When you think of 'complacent' what animal better fits it than sheep. It is a very commonly used turn of phrase because of this.

mathgladiator• 16 years ago

He is saying that sometimes you are sheep and sometimes a herder. It isn't an exclusive or.

In life, you want to be a craftsman but you sometimes just need to be a tool. Many times, you have to be both to get the job done. For CEOs are tools to their customers, and that's just how it works.

borismus• 16 years ago

I think he's trying to say that learning is good. Hard to refute that one :)

But... "Would you be comfortable going to a physician if you learned they hadn’t read any new findings in years?"

When's the last time you went to a family doctor that stays up-to-date with life science research?

dkubb• 16 years ago

Maybe it's not the norm, but I've read about new findings in the past, mentioned them to my family doctor and found that he's familiar with the same studies.

Like developers, I'm sure there are doctors who just do their 9-5 and go home, while others continue to study, attend conferences and discuss new techniques with other doctors. Also similarly it's hard for the people who hire them ("us") to differentiate between them unless we have domain specific knowledge or someone who does and we trust to recommend a good doctor.

abi• 16 years ago

That's an interesting point you bring up. Differentiating doctors is even harder than differentiating developers because at the least, developers can show you their work/portfolio. But for doctors, what are the external indicators of goodness? Perhaps, having intelligent conversations with each one might tell you something but even that is merely a fraction of the whole picture. I'd be interested in reading studies about how people pick their doctors (historically and now). Opinions of friends would probably be an important factor. And perhaps, race too.

wallflower• 16 years ago

My uncle is a specialist and when I visited him a few years ago and asked what he did for fun/off-work - he pointed at the piles and stacks of journals on his specialty. Continuing Medical Education (CME) helps ensure all board-certified doctors keep their skills current.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuing_medical_education

cincinnatus3• 16 years ago

Not just that learning is good, but that continuous learning is necessary to remain relevant, and to not be a drag on everyone that interacts with you.

sp4rki• 16 years ago

If there is one thing I learnt from coming from a family of doctors is that it doesn't matter if your doctor graduated from Harvard Medical School, or a public university in a third world country. What does matter is that the doctor's a fellow at a reputable institution. The well read doctors, who keep studying their whole careers, are the good ones (and in most cases than not, the popular ones). If your doctor doesn't, I'd be wary about his diagnosis for anything other than a common cold.

This is the reality (and also what the article points to). Doctors who don't keep up are the sheep, the same as programmers that learn some stuff in college and spend decades in the corporate world building buzzword resumes. Doctors who do keep up are the cutting edge developers and entrepreneurs either making bazillions of dollars, making the word a better place, or at least being happy knowing you're one of those at the top instead on one of those to scared to climb the mountain.

I know your questions are not directed to me, but I just have to answer them: 1) No I wouldn't be comfortable going to a physician that's not well read and informed on the greatest and latest. My family of doctors also operated a series of medical book stores, which I managed for a few years and spent half the time reading the medical books. If a doctor can't answer the simplest things I got out of 5~10 year old books he should have in his library anyways, I'm leaving ASAP. 2) Last Tuesday. The Dentist is actually really well read. She always tells me about the new interesting stuff she's read.

zzzeek• 16 years ago

Are you working every day to get your blog to display without annoying hyphens ? Or are you complacently settling for not knowing how to fix it ? If an entrepreneur isn't improving on how to publish their ideas, then what profession are they in exactly ?

sliverstorm• 16 years ago

I think a single day is a poor timeframe in which to look for improvement. You can't better yourself in all subjects that interest you in 16 hours.

Are you improving every day? Or are you a sheep?

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