Most people have heard of Warren Buffet, the head of Berkshire Hathaway and investment guru (notwithstanding he does not accept that description). His long-term business partner, Charlie Munger, who is less of a household name, died in November – a month shy of his 100th birthday. In the same month, Henry Kissinger died having reached his ton, to use cricket parlance.
An obituary of Munger in the Wall Street Journal described him a “moral exemplar” – someone who showed how to think clearly, deal fairly and live life fully. Those who knew him well said he displayed epistemic humility which is a profound sense of how little anyone can know and how important it is to open and change your mind.
In medicine we know a lot more than at any time in history. However, this remains dwarfed by what we do not know and cannot explain. Yet there has been a trend to increasing dogma and less willingness to consider that we could be wrong. To be honest, this is more at an official body level than in actual day-to-day practice.
This is most notable when studies come out questioning current beliefs. The default position is to claim that the study is biased, wrong, faulty or even better there is something bad about the authors. Cochrane reviews are not immune from damnation if they find what is currently believed is not actually correct.
Let’s collectively aim to adopt some epistemic humility in 2024.
February 10 marks the start of the Chinese year of the wood dragon, described as a time for new starts, great beginnings, hard work, and power to growth and prosperity. Wood can create passion, creativity, invention, and introduce new things.
While WA is not scheduled for an election this year, we move into that part of the cycle (both state and federal) where everything is done with a view to the next election. With the same party in power at both levels it is harder to blame each other for the failings of the health system. Expect lots of promises as the year progresses.
While on predictions, February 10 marks the start of the Chinese year of the wood dragon, described as a time for new starts, great beginnings, hard work, and power to growth and prosperity. Wood can create passion, creativity, invention, and introduce new things. This sound pretty positive and given the start we had to the decade and the problems of late 2023, we could use some positivity.
This is our first January edition and the clinical section features four popular articles of 2023 updated and expanded. Everyone observes that time is flying by! January is a good time to recharge the batteries for what lies ahead.