Better (2007) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Barry Lang: Malpractice Lawer
• Pankaj Bhatnagar: Add a description of this character.
• Elizabeth Rourke
• Peter Perreiah
• Barbara Stanley
• Warren Warwick
• Walter Reed
• Annie
• Matthews
• Peccei
• Semmelweis
• Berman
• Marino
• Apgar
• Alyssa
• Bowes
• Yokoe
• Murphy
• Thomas
• Pieper
• Motewar

Quotes edit see section history

• ““In medicine, as in any profession, we must grapple with systems, resources, circumstances, people and our own shortcoming, as well. We face obstacles of seemingly unending variety. Yet somehow we must advance, we must refine, we must improve.””

• “Consider asking of any challenge this question, “What keeps you from . . .””

• ““His combination of focus, aggressiveness and inventiveness is what makes him extraordinary.””

• “To improve upon anything and in part adapted from Paul Auster “Gotham Handbook” Collected prose www.positivedeviance.org1. Ask an unscripted question2. Don’t complain3. Count something4. Write something5. Change”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• Arriving at meaningful solutions is an inevitably slow and difficult process. Nonetheless, what I saw was: better is possible. It does not take genius. It takes diligence. It takes moral clarity. It takes ingenuity. And above all, it takes a willingness to try.

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• Lloyd was bitten by the positive deviance idea—the idea of building on capabilities people already had rather than telling them how they had to change.

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• What the best may have, above all, is a capacity to learn and change—and to do so faster than everyone else.

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• People underestimate the importance of diligence as a virtue. No doubt this has something to do with how supremely mundane it seems. It is defined as “the constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken.”

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• MY FOURTH SUGGESTION was: Write something.

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• MY THIRD ANSWER for becoming a positive deviant: Count something.

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• Ask an unscripted question. Ours is a job of talking to strangers. Why not learn something about them?

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• Good doctors, she finally said, understand one key thing: “This is not about them. It’s about the patient.” The good doctors didn’t always get the answers right, she said. Sometimes they still pushed too long or not long enough. But at least they stopped to wonder, to reconsider the path they were on. They asked colleagues for another perspective. They set aside their egos.

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• MY SECOND SUGGESTION was: Don’t complain.

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• The third requirement for success is ingenuity—thinking anew. Ingenuity is often misunderstood. It is not a matter of superior intelligence but of character. It demands more than anything a willingness to recognize failure, to not paper over the cracks, and to change. It arises from deliberate, even obsessive, reflection on failure and a constant searching for new solutions.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• India
• United States
• Iraq
• Cincinnati
• Berwick
• Karnataka
• Afghanistan
• Baghdad
• Vietnam
• Minneapolis
• Boston
• Upparahalla
• Nanded
• Pittsburgh
• Washington

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Atul Gawande (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 616

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Professional & Technical › Medical › Medicine › Surgery › General Surgery
• Books › Medicine › Specialties › Surgery
• Books › Health, Mind & Body › Personal Health