Tag: fitness

Should you have meniscus surgery?

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Maybe.

In medical school aspiring doctors say the Hippocratic oath: to first do no harm. I think about that teaching high school business.

I know (most days) that my activity on customer acquisition cost or intellectual property and perfume dupes is not the most important thing. High school students have a lot(!) going on in their lives. My own glasses about high school are rose colored, but I do remember riding my bike to the river, listening to Springsteen, and thinking I’d never recover from a broken heart.

So I try to first do no harm.

Kids learn a lot on their own. The goal in class is to take small steps everyday. Even just one thing. If they only remember that patents have perfect pictures it’s a win.

Windfalls are rare.

Earlier this year was my annual physical. It had been a long time since seeing a doctor. Nothing is wrong but a lack of baselines. In addition to a physical and labs is some knee pain. After a range of motion diagnostic, my PCP said it’s probably my meniscus. We could do physical therapy and go through insurance or I could pay cash for an MRI – the definitive proof. The ultimate outcome, he said, is probably surgery.

The MRI quotes were $500 and the PT appointments were weeks away so using AI, I made my own. Then I read this!

https://www.sensible-med.com/p/bravery-and-humility-is-needed-to

Patients who had a placebo surgery (everything but the actual manipulation of the meniscus) had better outcomes than actual surgery patients. There was no trial to compare PT patient outcomes.

The catalyst is time. If there’s no timeline or deadline there’s no problem. The test is Friday. The race is in December.

And time is arbitrary. It’s like Free Parking. Before a Monopoly game begins the players need to decide on what Free Parking means. Time is just like that.

Have a great Monday.

JTBD: Triathlons

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The end of the high school track season was bittersweet this year. A few senior boys, who I got to know well, didn’t quite run well enough to advance in the post season.

But being high school senior boys, they soon had another idea: a sprint triathlon.

There’s a great place in Clermont Florida (Choice of Champions) that runs an accessible sprint series each summer in May, June, July, and August. “When are you signing up,” I asked, “I’ll sign up too.”

It’s great to gloat over them with a rare win and they give all the trash talk back (and more) when they beat me.

“July,” Nick said.

“No!” his mom protested, “it’s going to be too hot.”

That’s the point. It’s not really about doing a triathlon, it’s about having an experience. Yes, times kind of matter, but only in the scope of the experience. For a crew of high school swimmers and runners, it might be a better experience and greater stories if it’s the race in July.

Maybe it will be, maybe not. But it’s the right direction. This was an early lesson in Bob Iger’s experiences. He thought sports was about the game, but really it’s about the story. Talking about the wins or losses are meaningless without comparison because context gives us a narrative.

This summer then, take the trip, do the thing, make mistakes. It’s not actually about the outcome – it’s about the experience.

Don’t bring information to a design fight at the gym

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One of the themes around here is that design matters.

Want to change something (*ahem, resolutions we thought about making)? Change the design around it.

It’s easy to think that information is what leads to change. But it doesn’t seem to work that way. It’s not that we don’t know we should [save money/ eat this not that / take these actions at work] but that those actions are easy as not to do as they are to do. It’s only when the circumstances change that the action changes itself.

People who work with a physical trainer bench more, eat better, and have fewer injuries compared to people who work out alone or with a partner. We all have the right information for forms and styles, for foods and fibers. But there’s something different about the circumstances around having a trainer.

There’s progress you want to make. There’s progress I want to make. Things that haven’t happened yet. We need to change the circumstances.