3 Odd Lessons

Here are some strange observations gleamed in the last year or so...

It’s been a year since returning to work my field craft as a paramedic on a 9-11 ALS unit. Here are some observations I’ve made along the way…

Lesson 1: Don’t Trust 9 PM Talk

I hypothesize this is a rather new (-ish) problem. Our modern lives in most developed nations allow for a brief reprieve from the day’s stress.

And, that’s where the problems set in…

I surmise the worst decisions we make globally is most often done at night. I have some data about that but it’s largely anecdotal.

Depending on which study you read, most suicides and overdoses occur in the evening and night time hours. Maybe this is a bit of confirmation bias on my end being in EMS and all, but I tend to believe the studies that say night time is the devil’s playground for bad decisions.

The science-y reason for is that our frontal cortex, the part of our brain that does logical heavy lifting, tends to downshift.

Our impulse control is all but gone.

Couple that with sorrowful ruminations (bad country music, etc.), overthinking, shifting hormones, and boom! The fertile valley of bad decisions. And, don’t even get me started about capping it all off with bad decision multipliers- alcohol and drugs.

The best salve for this is…going to sleep. Yeah, read a book or put on some non-depressing background music but mostly go to sleep. Put the phone down. Do NOT send that text message. Go to bed.

As the oldage goes…

If you hate everyone, you need to eat. If everyone hates you, you need sleep.

Lesson 2: The Idiot is Closer than We Think

We have inside us all an idiot yearning to be free. Some more than others must try harder to keep it harnessed.

Those who think they don’t have an idiot have allowed the idiot to become feral and free ranging. Be wary of these people.

Fumbling with keys, letting loose words best left restrained, or staring intently at a tool you’ve used a thousand times but…just. cannot. understand how the freaking thing works now is not what I’m referring to.

Those are lapses…incidentals. Squishy human brain mistakes.

No, the idiot I’m referring to is far more crafty and best explained by the graph below.

This is the Dunning-Kreuger effect. Simply, those with a low ability in something tend to overestimate their competence while those with a high ability do the opposite.

Incompetence leads to inflated self-evaluation while competence leads to modesty or in worse circumstances doubt.

Once you’ve got the hang of something, the competence horizon broadens and you realize just how much you don’t know. That’s a good thing. If you think you’ve mastered something, you probably haven’t looked far enough.

Lesson 3: Solutions are Illusions

This gem came from Thomas Sowell and I’ve found it to be strangely comforting and true.

There are no solutions, only trade-offs

Perfect solutions are illusions. There is no perfect decision. It’s all risk-stratification. You weigh the pros with the cons and determine the best course forward.

Sometimes, our scrutiny is unbalanced giving greater weight to one side than the other but it’s something we all do.

Our bias bends favor towards the decision we want to make often ignoring red flags.

We see what we want to see.

We really do think the grass is greener on the other side.

And, sure, opportunities for advancements exist but don’t fool yourself into think they’re perfect. Far from it. New opportunities are packaged with their own set of pros and cons as does everything in life. The mature thing to do is analyze objectively with that in mind, especially for the big stuff.

Sometimes, you just don’t care and that’s okay. Eat the oreo or spicy cheetos. You know the risks but maybe not make it a habit, eh?