BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, MD As we enter a new year, let’s hope it’s a better one. Who’s to blame? Can we forgive? Filled with calamities, 2021 should not be hard to beat, but who knows? Hard to see much light at the end of the pandemic tunnel or the climate tunnel, or to see […]
BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, MD Do cat people and dog people have distinctly different personality styles? There’s a lot of opinion out there about this—there’s even a Wikipedia site called “Cat people and dog people.” Then there’s our much-viewed blog from early 2019, “Are You a Cat Person?” I’ve been mulling this over since last […]
BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, M.D. & LOIS B. MORRIS No matter how resilient our personality styles may be, we are all susceptible to the radical stress of a year of social isolation. We humans are social animals. Whether we’re naturally outgoing or reserved, we need to be with each other. Adjusting to constraint is hard […]
BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, M.D., & LOIS B. MORRIS “Attention is a limited resource, so pay attention to where you pay attention,” said the writer Howard Rheingold. This maxim is a favorite of a theoretical physicist named Michael Goldhaber. He is “the internet prophet you’ve never heard of,” according to New York Times Opinion writer […]
BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, MD How to be a good leader: Learn by listening. That struck me as the main message of a small book sent to department chairs throughout the country some time ago by the American Association of Medical Schools. I’ve tried to do just that throughout my career, sometimes more successfully than […]
BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, M.D. If you are expecting holiday harmony, you may have to think twice. The family gathering just may not turn out like the Norman Rockwell images of perfect family bliss. Instead, as a Thanksgiving-day op-ed in the New York Times put it, “Make Room at the Table for Difficult People.” Grumble, […]
BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, M.D. “Humility Is Something to Boast About.” That was the headline on a recent article in the print edition of The New York Times. Benedict Carey reports on a recent review of studies of people with a personality trait characterized by an ability to perceive one’s own flaws and strengths, and […]
