Conviction > Consensus

I’m willing to go against the status quo

As a clinician, I have a deeply rooted conviction that people should not be blamed for being sick under any circumstances. However, during the pandemic, this conviction was at odds with the prevailing public consensus.

For a long time, a lot of people believed that those who got COVID deserved it. After all, maybe they went to a party when they should have stayed home. Maybe they pulled down their mask, wearing it around their chin. Maybe they didn’t get vaccinated.

In this milieu, I wrote an article that was published by MedPage Today: “Stop Blaming Patients for Their Conditions – It's ultimately counterproductive.” Not once did I mention COVID. Why? Because when I express a contrarian view, I’m guided by a three-fold approach.

1. Read the room and assess whether the idea falls within the Overton window.

2. Have the courage to say what needs to be said.

3. Be diplomatic in order to give the message the best chance of being heard and understood.

The world is a better place when people are able to share diverse perspectives in good faith.

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“Attributes are way, way more important than experience. So we index really heavily on attributes. And what I mean by that is ‘who someone is’ more than experience, what they've done. We've found that to be way more highly correlated. When we're hiring for almost any role we want to hire the high attribute candidate.”

- Graham Weaver