#25 - 13 March, 2024

CONTENTS

?? LEAD ARTICLE: From numbers to narratives. The skill of transforming data into captivating stories

?? Outsource your critical thinking to stay afloat in the information deluge

?? The need to be seen as treating - action bias in medical practice

?? Embracing life's final chapter - The rise of Death Doulas

?? Second helpings - good reading from the web

LEAD ARTICLE

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From numbers to narratives. The skill of transforming data into captivating stories

It sounds like a paradox. This talent demands the ability to combine two personalities that are at opposite ends of a spectrum. Scientists are usually poor communicators of ideas; acknowledged geniuses can put you into a coma when they speak in public. On the other end, you have talk show hosts who can make the most ordinary situations come alive with stories, even to the extent of stretching the truth to its limits.?

Neuroscientists tell us that our brains are hardwired to process narratives rather than theoretical concepts. Stories with a touch of drama tend to stick in people's minds for far longer than data-heavy presentations. Maya Angelou wisely remarked that people will not remember much of what you say but will always carry with them memories of how they felt when they heard you.

Hard-headed scientists and engineers are usually wary of storytelling. They consider it unnecessary embellishment. They would prefer to let the facts speak for themselves. It's not a safe tactic. The audience will often create their own stories, leading to misunderstandings and conclusions that are not in line with what the speaker intended. Misinformation perpetuates when scientists are poor communicators.

Can I do it? Yes.

Through time immemorial, the story arc follows a standard narrative path. Protagonist(s) ???goal or mission ?? journey/ venture ?? impediment(s)/ villains ?? battles ?? victory. From the Ramayana through the Star Wars and Star Trek sagas, the device never fails to enthral.

Here's a 6-step adaptation of this strategy for successful professional storytelling. Split each of them into a story or narrative—a "use case" in techspeak—followed by data and stats.

1?? The big question. Name the enemy or pain point. This is the best way to rope the audience into your talk, to make them relate to what you have to say.

2?? Paint a picture of the promised land. Give them a preview or teaser about the way things could look.

3?? Demonstrate your innovation, tool, or idea.

4?? Pitfalls and obstacles in the route. Be open. Don't underplay the risks.

5?? Show how your device can surmount these obstacles.

6?? Now provide proof with data on your idea.

Watch effective communicators and pick out aspects of their style that are worth mimicking. Between YouTube and TED, you have an endless supply.

Caveat presentor

? Multiple visuals may be needed to convey different parts of a story, as a single figure might not capture the entire narrative. You need to bring in the data visualisation at the right points in your story.

? To maintain audience engagement, figures should be simplified and clear, emphasising the key points. You will lose the audience with complex, busy, fussy tables, charts, and graphics.

Here are some well known science-based story tellers.

Florence Nightingale. Yes, the Lady with the Lamp and the uncontested founder of modern nursing. She had a remarkable genius for making eye-catching charts - what we would now call infographics - to convince those in power to see her arguments for making changes in public health. And, mind you, she didn't have PowerPoint and all the presentation wizardry we now do. She rendered them by hand.

Carl Sagan. "Cosmos" is almost 50 years old but the story telling behind it is magical. Sagan exposed us to the sense of awe at the cosmos and the very special nature of our "blue dot" of a planet. Timeless!

Hans Rosling. Rosling was renowned for his dynamic presentations that utilised moving bubbles and other visualizations to depict trends in global health, economics, and population growth, bringing life to statistics and emphasising the progress of different countries over time. Bill Gates was his #1 fan.

Set aside some time to explore them. It's an education in itself.

???? ????????-?????????? Data visualisation makes use of simple yet intriguing stories to successfully share information with an audience, focusing on clarity, emotional connection, and memorability while avoiding excessive details.

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"Data is like garbage. You'd better know what you are going to do with it before you collect it." - Mark Twain

"Without stories, data can be overwhelming or meaningless. With stories, data can enlighten and engage in meaningful ways." - Brent Dykes

#storytelling #data #visualisation

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Outsource your critical thinking to stay afloat in the information deluge

We are drowning in information: some valuable, a lot that is dubious and an alarming amount that is fabricated.

? Readers are swamped with advice on how to "think critically," to seek out quality and relevance in the information that \shape our thoughts and beliefs.

? Non-sequiturs, begging the question, slippery slopes, straw man attacks, hasty generalisations, appeals to authority —all beyond reach for most of us.

Come on! I have a family to support, a job to do, and dozens of shows to watch on cable. I have no time for this.

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Here's my go-to list for heavy lifting in terms of QA.

• Top tier: Aeon, Big Think, The Atlantic, Nautilus, Reason, The Conversation, The Guardian, Vox, Wired
• Recommended: Ars Technica, BBC Future, Brain Pickings, Discover, Farnam Street, Fast Company, Hacker News, Inc, Lifehacker, MakeUseOf, New Atlas, Open Culture, Page Array, Quartz, TechCrunch, TED Talks, Art of Manliness, Next Web, Saturday Evening Post, Truthdig, Undark.

30 sites? Wait, wait! Don't quit on me. I promised you a solution, and I will deliver.

• RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed format that gets new stories from your websites automatically. You can see all the new stuff in one place without having to visit each website one by one. Every site in this list has one.
• RSS Readers are apps that aggregate content from various sites that you subscribe to via their RSS feeds, allowing you to access and read updates from multiple sources in a single, organised interface. There are any number of popular tools, many of which are free to use.

? My choice: Inoreader (Disclaimer: I derive no benefit other than the joy of spreading goodness and light.)

Filter, filter, filter

This gem can do wondrous things. The most powerful tool is the way you can filter with keywords to set up monitoring feeds.

My filter list: creativity, health, innovation, productivity, skill, software, and wellness.

Yes, that's all I need from the 30. The rest is garbage. Make your own list.

Articles listed can be read in full text on a side panel. Links take you to the parent website.

? TIP - Setting up the filter, use just a root. For example, "innovat" will pick up all the variants from this root: innovate, innovation, innovative, innovativeness etc.

I get around 100 filtered posts a day. I end up reading around a dozen or so - ???? ?????????????????????? ???????? ?????? ?????? ??????.

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“Just as we have diet books, we need information diet books. Just as we have personal trainers, we need information trainers.” - Esther Dyson

#criticalthinking #rss #outsourcing

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The need to be seen as treating - action bias in medical practice

The action bias is a cognitive tendency that leads individuals to prefer taking action over remaining inactive, often without fully considering the consequences. It's easier for us to take action than remain inactive and watchful.

Experienced doctors know well the benefits of masterful inactivity and interposition of a period of expectant waiting. Many disorders will get better while we wait. Patients, though, may see it as dawdling and lack of expertise. Doctors feel compelled to "do something."

Action bias in medical care can manifest in various ways, often leading to unnecessary interventions or treatments that may not benefit the patient and could even cause harm. Here are some examples:

?? Overprescription of antibiotics: Doctors often prescribe antibiotics to patients with viral infections, even though they are fully aware that antibiotics are ineffective against viruses. The action bias rises from patient pressure to receive treatment - seen to be treating - despite the potential for antibiotic resistance and side effects.

?? Unnecessary diagnostic tests: We talked about this in depth in an earlier issue of {P}rescription.

?? Excessive screening procedures: While screening can be life-saving, overuse can lead to false positives, unnecessary biopsies, and over-treatment of conditions that may never cause symptoms or harm. More here.

?? Elective surgeries: Surgeons might be inclined to perform elective surgeries even in cases where conservative management might be equally or more effective. Back and joint complaints are common danger zones.

?? Aggressive treatment in end-of-life care: This can stem from a cultural bias towards "fighting" the illness, or difficulty in accepting the limits of medical intervention.

?? VIP syndrome: When treating high-profile patients, healthcare professionals might feel compelled to take more assertive action than necessary, due to the perceived pressure to deliver exceptional care or fear of repercussions from perceived inaction.

? The placebo effect - false assurance of effectiveness. The placebo effect is a definite entity in medical treatment. Favourable outcomes are seen fairly often with placebos. This effect can be waved about as proof of efficacy of a medical intervention and justification for the action bias.

In each of these instances, the action bias can lead to healthcare decisions that may not be in the best interest of the patient, highlighting the importance of balanced decision-making that carefully weighs the benefits and risks of action versus inaction.

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“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Blaise Pascal - French polymath from the 17th century

#bias #action #treatment

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Embracing life’s final chapter - The rise of Death Doulas

We venerate youth. We spend massive amounts of money, time, and emotions on staying young. We refuse to confront the prospect of dying. Of the two certainties that Ben Franklin mentioned, we talk endlessly about taxation but duck and evade conversations about dying.?

?Western culture views life as linear and death as a full stop that has to be resisted at all costs. Dylan Thomas advised us to "not go gentle into that good night" but to "rage against the dying of the light."?

? Eastern cultures, with their emphasis on the cyclical nature of life and its universal connectedness, see death as a part of an endless rhythm, to be welcomed and moved past. The well-known writer, Haruki Murakami, aptly said, “Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.”?

We prefer to hand over anything to do with death and dying to a professional class of people to manage the event in hospices and terminal-care centres.

? The concept of death doulas, akin to birth doulas but for the end-of-life stage, has gained attention globally. These individuals offer much-needed support to those with terminal conditions, aiming to improve the quality of both life and death. They aim to restore grace and dignity to this inevitable part of life.

• Death doulas provide a range of services, from funeral planning to emotional support, often filling significant gaps left by reluctant, wary next-of-kin, overstretched healthcare systems, and informal care networks.?
• Their work extends beyond the individual, engaging communities in discussions about death and grief, thus normalising these essential conversations.?
• The demand for death doulas signifies a societal shift towards a more profound recognition of life’s final stages, challenging longstanding taboos and redefining the notion of a dignified death.?

???? ????????-?????????? || While they do not replace medical palliative care, death doulas offer a complementary layer of support, guiding individuals and their families through one of life’s most significant transitions.

#death #dying #doula

SECOND HELPINGS

Good reading from all over

CONTENTS

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