Teaching is amazing: it’s a vehicle for one person to make the space for the transformation of another. But what makes the best teachers so good?
Category archives: Communication
Why “normal” isn’t useful for describing things
I tell medical students early in our interactions to avoid describing things as “normal” because it’s not the useful description they think it is. It can mean two opposite things and that creates problems.
Behind every joke, there’s smoke
There are few things more tedious than someone acting in bad faith. You see it all the time on social media. Person A posts and then some other Person B shows up in the replies attacking said tweet. Person A (or some other Person C) then points out how the attack is unfair, only for …
Dancing at work
One of the favourite parts of my job is when I get to dance with patients and their loved ones. Not literally of course. Read more…
I’m trilingual in English: here’s what that’s like
I speak 3 different kinds of English. That’s in addition to Yoruba, which is the language of my ancestors. Let’s talk about it.
Do you speak with precision or power?
The more important the idea, the more we should prioritise power over precision: aim to be as minimally precise as necessary to convey your point, but as maximally powerful as possible. There are two reasons why.
How to have an essay for everything
The short—and obvious—answer: write a ton. The long answer—how I wrote the ton—is this essay.
We believe what we find believable
People on both sides of every argument throw facts at each other, certain any reasonable person must draw only one conclusion from these facts. But that’s not the case.
Stories are like maps, facts are like photos
Stories are like maps, facts are like photos. Here’s why…
You’re not lazy. You just need better feedback.
Great feedback is like a map: and it can transform your life. Here’s the story of how that happened for a friend and for me.