Like him or not, he has been a tremendous success by (almost) any measure, and there are a few things we can learn by watching him. One I’ve noticed is his general fuzziness with the data. Allow me to explain how this works to his benefit despite all the cries of inaccuracy and failing the fact-checkers.
Let’s go all the way back to his inauguration and the discussion that swirled around the size of the crowd. Do you remember? It was big news. The Trump people said it was the most viewed and best-attended inauguration in history. That was probably not true. But with TV and internet viewing, it’s not something you can put a cold hard number on. It probably wasn’t true, but it could have been.
Here’s the point, it doesn’t matter. Not one little bit. While everyone was splitting hairs about the “real” number of attendees, Trump was enjoying listening to everyone talk about HIM and the inauguration. Even if he was wrong, even if he was purposefully lying, he won. The media and the country was focused on him.
Trump is fuzzy with the numbers and the details when he speaks, but he gets the direction of the story right. There was indeed a big crowd. He’s not 180 degrees off the mark, but more like 15-30 degrees off. And that’s on purpose. He seem to have done very well for himself with that strategy. There are loads of examples on this, but we’re going to stop with just that one. Even though I’m sure you can think of many, many more.
The point here is don’t miss the forest for the trees. I’ve come across several studies on habits that are fascinating. A Harvard study showed that 95% of your actions and thoughts are habits. Other studies put that number between 85% and 92%.
Here’s my question for you. Does it matter? Maybe, but that depends on context. It doesn’t matter at all when we’re talking about altering your behavior to make you a better test taker if the number is 95% or 90%.
And here’s where students get dragged down.
Does it matter if the elevated blood pressure is 128 or 132?Nope.
Does it matter if the test makers are using the “old” information or the “new” information? Nope. It doesn’t matter at all.
What if a patients LDL is 101?Is that elevated? Should you treat him with meds?
They aren’t going to ask you that on an exam. It doesn’t matter. They are going to give you VERY clear questions. The LDL will be 150, not 102 if they want to you to treat it. In your practice, there will be other factors to consider when deciding whether to treat a patient or not.
Deep breaths here, I know it’s a tough one. No one is going to ask you a question to split hairs on minutia like that. (And if they do, which they won’t, it’s one question out of hundreds).Planning, perseverating, and sleepless nights over this kind of thing makes absolutely no sense. Some details CAN be a bit fuzzy. Knowing which ones is where the money is.
Stop memorizing the things that don’t need to be memorized. Stop worrying over incredibly minor details. See the forest. Understand how it lives and breathes, and then start looking at individual trees and animals.
Most of us look at the giant forest and start by learning everything there is to know about the spotted leopard mosquito. It isn’t that the mosquito doesn’t matter. It does matter, of course it matters, but you simply can’t learn everything all at once. You can’t focus on everything. The details will take some time.
Brian Wallace
