It is common to misconceive how checklists function in complex lines of work. They are not comprehensive how-to guides, whether for building a skyscr… - Atul Gawande

we usually have only vague indicators to rely upon.

The calm and wisdom of old age are achieved over time.

The core predicament of medicine - the thing that makes being a patient so wrenching, being a doctor so difficult, and being a part of society that pays the bills they run up so vexing - is uncertainty. With all that we know nowadays about people and diseases and how to diagnose and treat them, it can be hard to see this, hard to grasp how deeply uncertainty runs. As a doctor, you come to find, however, that the struggle in caring for people is more often with what you do not know than what you do. Medicine's ground state is uncertainty. And wisdom - for both the patients and doctors - is defined by how one copes with it.