Protecting Sight #80: Why specializing early doesn’t always mean career success.

Welcome to my daily learning journal. My daily goal is to watch one Ted Talk and one cataract surgery. I also plan to read one journal article and read/listen to a book chapter, short story or significant work.

Here’s today’s list:

1. Ted Talk – David Epstein – Why specializing early doesn’t always mean career success. “A head start doesn’t always … well, help you get ahead. With examples from sports, technology and economics, journalist David Epstein shares how specializing in a particular skill too early in life may undermine your long-term development — and explains the benefits of a “sampling period” where you try new things and focus on building a range of skills. Learn how this broader, counterintuitive mindset (and more forgiving timeline) could lead to a more fulfilling life, personally and professionally.”(ted.com)

Enjoyed this Ted Talk. This should be a mandatory Ted Talk for pre-med and medical students … and my many friends & colleagues who suffer from moral injury (ie. physician burnout / career burnout).

2. Cataract Surgery – Uday Devgan MD – Peeling Capsular Membranes. “We present another great learning video from Dr. Val Apostolov from Amsterdam, The Netherlands to show the techniques of peeling capsular membranes in cataract surgery. These can be on the anterior capsular rim as shown in the above photo, or on the posterior capsule, right in the visual axis. Both of these conditions can often benefit from capsular peeling techniques. We must use a high degree of caution in these cases because of the delicate nature of the capsule which is as thin as 4 microns for the posterior capsule and 14 microns for the anterior capsule.”

I definitely favor the YAG-later group!

3A. Journal – Opinion – Neuro-Ophthalmology’s SOS: Save Our Subspecialty. Ruth D. Williams, MD, Chief Medical Editor, on the present and future of neuro-ophthalmology.

3B. Journal Neuro: How to Minimize Diagnostic Errors. EyeNet September 2020.

Neuro-Ophthalmologists are often the ophthalmologist’s ophthalmologist. I hope the subspecialty survives and thrives. I also hope tele-medicine and AI continue to help the profession and patient care move forward.

4. Book Chapter – Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. LoyalBooks.com, SparkNotes, and Gutenberg. Chapter 18 (THE END!).

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