The Best Book I've Read On Aging & Death
The Best Book I've Read On Aging & DeathPomp's Notes on Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine, and What Matters In The EndTo investors, I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine, and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here. Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday morning. Book’s main argument:No one wants to talk about the experience of dying, nor the days, months, and years that lead up to that moment. Old age used to be a revered status in a society — technology changed that. Rather than require our elderly to live the last days in institutionalized care away from their families, we now have a better path forward. Atul Gawande shares personal stories, and many different studies, that will make you think more deeply about medicine’s role in aging and the end of your life. 6 Big Ideas:💡 Idea #1 — Doctors are well equipped to save lives, but they are not prepared for managing the last years of patients. This core problem is what Gawande sets out to solve, so he writes:
And then he continues by saying:
This is backed up by data:
Gawande also points out that the problem may not be exclusively pinned on doctors, but rather some of their tools as well:
💡 Idea #2 — Societies previously placed a premium on the oldest members of the group. They were believed to have wisdom and knowledge that was hard for the youth to capture or appreciate. Modern societies have gone a different direction. Gawande writes:
This was because old age was rare, so it was valuable. It appears that is changing:
The transition is not merely measured in the aggregate number of people above a certain age though. There is a growing difference between the elderly and their younger peers:
Gawande explains that young people are not replacing the elderly as the top of a society’s hierarchy, instead independence has become highly sought after:
💡 Idea #3 — Death is not an unfortunate, magic moment that happens late in life. Instead, it is the culmination of your habits, your experiences, and the wear and tear on your body. Gawande writes:
There are repercussions that accompany the fact that many of us are living longer:
Gawande explains that we can’t see the small changes, but our body’s decay becomes obvious over a long period of time:
💡 Idea #4 — Most people don’t fear death as much as they fear what will happen in the days and months leading up to death. Both patient and caregiver is wildly unprepared for these moments. Gawande explains:
Gawande uses two quotes to summarize the barbaric nature of death:
Since very few people know how to handle death and old age, society has created various “solutions” that likely are making the situation worse for many people:
💡 Idea #5 — Young people tend to avoid thinking about old age because they believe life gets worse. People who spend significant time with the elderly report that the opposite may be true, which would mean that we can learn quite a bit from this population. Gawande writes:
The focus on the present over the future can lead to more happiness:
Gawande describes the elderly in the same way that Robert Greene would describe Mastery or Brad Stulberg would describe groundedness:
💡 Idea #6 — Medical care for the elderly is as much about understanding their psychological state as it is understanding the medical care that has been identified. Gawande explains how one assisted living manager, Bill Thomas, accidentally changed how the industry worked:
Thomas also discovered that the sense of belonging was incredibly important:
This brings us to a key point — control of one’s life is incredibly important:
Memorable quotes:
Pomp’s Takeaways:My first big takeaway was the comparison between age and perspective. Atul Gawande posed the following hypothesis:
This is fascinating to think about. If true, it argues that young people can actually increase the quality of their life, and in turn their happiness, by simply focusing on the present instead of the far-flung future. This lines up with Gawande’s line “It’s perspective, not age, that matters most.” My second big takeaway was how important your environment can be. Gawande describes an experiment where an assisted living manager got approval to bring dogs, cats, birds, and living plants into the facility. There was a qualitative improvement (people were happier, more engaged, etc), but there was also a quantitative improvement in health outcomes too.
It is incredible to see the impact that someone can have by simply thinking outside the box. This is on top of the learning that you can extend living by surrounding yourself with more life. Lastly, there is a section of the book that mentions the relationship between where/how you die with the economic progress of the society you live in. Gawande explained it eloquently when he wrote:
This is a simple idea that exists in finance (ex: market selection is more important than asset selection) as well. The country you choose to live in, and ultimately die in, will have a profound impact on your experience. Choose wisely. As I mentioned, this past week’s book was Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine, and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here. Hope you enjoyed these notes. Let me know if you would like me to continue writing these in the future. -Pomp Note: Make sure you are subscribed to receive these personal notes each Monday morning. You're currently a free subscriber to The Pomp Letter. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
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