Jay Parkinson + MD + MPH = a doctor in NYC: Why health and social media don't mix

jayparkinsonmd:

Humans have invented tools to solve problems for themselves since day one. We need to bang something into the ground. That rock over there will work. We need to communicate with one another over a distance. Hey, how about some smoke signals?

The social web is just another tool to solve our…

Do not waste your life working on products without deep significance and meaning, that have the potential to have tremendous impact at scale. Avoid mediocre companies and below average colleagues or business partners. When it comes to your life’s work, be a shameless elitist. Why? Because we are living in one of the most fundamentally transformative epochs in history, and there’s so much incredible building to be done, and therefore the opportunity cost, if you’re a talented and passionate person, has never been higher, and you shouldn’t waste the most precious resources in the universe - your energy and time - on anything less than something truly amazing that you can wholeheartedly throw yourself into, and pour all of your life force into making a huge success. In other words, do not waste your ACTION working on the wrong IDEA.
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It’s Feb 1st, how are the NY resolutions coming?

It’s officially the end of January! Did you make resolutions ? Are you keeping them? 

Self Care Infographic
Brought to you by MSW@USC: Masters in Social Work

If you want to live your most fulfilled life, where the right opportunities find you, here are 4 steps that will get you started:

1) Know your unshakable belief.

What do you believe without a shadow of doubt? Look at your past, what is the consistent belief in everything you do? Look at your now, what deeply moves you and/or upsets you? If nothing currently resonates, commit to doing stuff that interests you and you’ll figure out what moves you along the way. If you’ve always wanted to be a fashion designer, synchronized swimmer, comedian, chef… take the first step. Then assess: what is the belief that’s driving me?

2) Build a platform to share your beliefs with the world.

Your belief can’t grow unless it’s shared. Build a blog and online presence that embodies your unshakable belief. Then find more influential platforms to write for and contribute. Talk about it. Create things that align with your beliefs. Keep finding new ways to share and act on your beliefs.

3) Recommit every single day. 

This step is often the hardest. Your belief won’t spread unless you recommit to  doing the hard work every single day. When it’s hard, remember that what you believe is powerful and has the ability to positively impact the lives of others. But only if you recommit every single day.

4) Watch the opportunities flock.

With hard work and sweat comes reasons to celebrate. Once your belief resonates in the hearts and minds of the right people, the opportunities will come.

What is your unshakable belief?

jayparkinsonmd: Hostess, maker of Twinkies, files for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, restaurants like Le Pain Quotidien and shares of Whole Foods and Lululemon are on the rise. This is capitalism at its best, and one of the main reasons why I’m optimistic about our nation’s health. You’ve got to fight capitalism with capitalism.
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jayparkinsonmd:

Hostess, maker of Twinkies, files for bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, restaurants like Le Pain Quotidien and shares of Whole Foods and Lululemon are on the rise. This is capitalism at its best, and one of the main reasons why I’m optimistic about our nation’s health. You’ve got to fight capitalism with capitalism.

good: New Yorkers have the highest life expectancy in the nation. Why? They smoke less, walk more, and have more friends and neighbors. And because of a bunch of other reasons. Guess it’s time to put those “urban health penalty” myths to rest.
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good:

New Yorkers have the highest life expectancy in the nation. Why? They smoke less, walk more, and have more friends and neighbors. And because of a bunch of other reasons. Guess it’s time to put those “urban health penalty” myths to rest.

HOLSTEE | Design with a Conscience: The Future of Fashion

holstee:

Image
Last night, Dave joined a panel of amazing and inspirational champions of fashion and social change at the Be Social Change New York Meetup at Green Spaces. The panel came together to discuss the question Can fashion be a catalyst for social change? And, if so, how can style…
Written by Dr. Ali Baba Sharecare profile  As human beings we bear the responsibility of being the highest life form on the planet. Our larger brains evolved to enabling us to be humored, laugh, be happy, mourn and of course fall in love.  The ability to care for next of kin or even a distant one for that matter is far more primitive however. “Kin Selection” was first described in the 1960’s as organisms’ tendency to exhibit strategies that favor the reproductive success of their relatives, even at a cost to their own survival.  Seen among squirrels in alarm calling, or helpers at the nest in scrub jays, and sterile worker castes in honey bees, in which these animals cooperate despite an obvious disadvantage to the donor. Our ability to exercise kin selection seems to have continued an upward challenge by  our evolved ability to exercise “greed”. Potential for human greed is thought to have been accentuated in the Western World after the Black Death  and has only gotten worse with the explosion in the human population and ever shrinking pool of resources. This greed has and continues to greatly contribute to widespread poverty where nearly half the world population lives under 2 dollars a day.  Some estimate that an equitable division of existing wealth in the world among the entire global population would leave everyone with about $120 a day.  Such division of wealth is not forthcoming but the tide may finally be changing.  The maturing industrialized revolution, continued economic development, and a decrease in the rate of population growth seem to have finally reversed some trends in poverty.  The percentage of the world’s population living in extreme poverty has halved since 1981 albeit there are geographical variations.  Most of this improvement has happened in East and South Asia. Meanwhile Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced an increase of poverty, from 41 percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001. As we learn to make technology less expensive and more accessible to masses at a dizzying rate, we can finally move beyond “hopes” and literally plan for eliminating poverty even in Sub-Saharan Aftrica within our lifetime! In fighting poverty, satisfying the  basic human needs of food, shelter, clothing ,sanitation and education seem to often be distinct from healthcare.  Historically, despite other basic human needs, “health” has been a commodity that does not have an absolute price.  Clean drinking water and sufficient nutrition can most certainly prevent diarrhea related early infant mortality and Vitamin D supplement may prevent Rickets, but a child born with heart deformity or a cleft lip/palate needs advanced surgical intervention which people at or near poverty simply can not afford.  Here is where health care social entrepreneurship comes in.  Finding ways to deliver healthcare in win win situations that serve the poor.  Some of heroic individuals and organizations most successful in addressing this problem happen to be in India. Dr. Devi Shetty’s team atNarayana Hrudayalaya Hospital believe in what I have always thought to be the intuitive grasp of the obvious …that: “children belong to the society….they are not the sole property of their family and so if parents are not in the position to pay the cost of a heart operation, and if the babies come to us, we have to do the operation…” It really is that simple, daaaah! Dr. Shetty and his team are making it possible everyday by continuing to combine a mission drive efficiency and high tech approaches to their socially driven business model.  The founding father of this approach in our modern times is another giant from India whose organization continues to lead the world in innovative approaches to delivering socially conscious high-quality health care to the masses, Dr. Venkataswamy of the Arivand Eye Hospitals: Dr. V believed in absolute and unrelenting belief in one’s value system, working hard to maximize on all resources available, and the financial arrangement where the more better off patients payments for services would cover the cost for those less fortunate. Exploring, understanding and realizing the principles that the organizations of Dr Shetty and Dr. V embody are the first steps in making a once distant dream of affordable health care for all possible.  With this comes the society’s ability to get another step closer to safeguarding the sacredness of children’s laughter and eliminating one of the primary causes of human poverty, health care disparities.  The question is where, when and how will this transformation happen in your community and if YOU will have had anything to do with it.   
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Written by Dr. Ali Baba Sharecare profile 

As human beings we bear the responsibility of being the highest life form on the planet. Our larger brains evolved to enabling us to be humored, laugh, be happy, mourn and of course fall in love.  The ability to care for next of kin or even a distant one for that matter is far more primitive however. “Kin Selection” was first described in the 1960’s as organisms’ tendency to exhibit strategies that favor the reproductive success of their relatives, even at a cost to their own survival.  Seen among squirrels in alarm calling, or helpers at the nest in scrub jays, and sterile worker castes in honey bees, in which these animals cooperate despite an obvious disadvantage to the donor. Our ability to exercise kin selection seems to have continued an upward challenge by  our evolved ability to exercise “greed”. Potential for human greed is thought to have been accentuated in the Western World after the Black Death  and has only gotten worse with the explosion in the human population and ever shrinking pool of resources. This greed has and continues to greatly contribute to widespread poverty where nearly half the world population lives under 2 dollars a day.  Some estimate that an equitable division of existing wealth in the world among the entire global population would leave everyone with about $120 a day.  Such division of wealth is not forthcoming but the tide may finally be changing.  The maturing industrialized revolution, continued economic development, and a decrease in the rate of population growth seem to have finally reversed some trends in poverty.  The percentage of the world’s population living in extreme poverty has halved since 1981 albeit there are geographical variations.  Most of this improvement has happened in East and South Asia. Meanwhile Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced an increase of poverty, from 41 percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001. As we learn to make technology less expensive and more accessible to masses at a dizzying rate, we can finally move beyond “hopes” and literally plan for eliminating poverty even in Sub-Saharan Aftrica within our lifetime! In fighting poverty, satisfying the  basic human needs of food, shelter, clothing ,sanitation and education seem to often be distinct from healthcare.  Historically, despite other basic human needs, “health” has been a commodity that does not have an absolute price.  Clean drinking water and sufficient nutrition can most certainly prevent diarrhea related early infant mortality and Vitamin D supplement may prevent Rickets, but a child born with heart deformity or a cleft lip/palate needs advanced surgical intervention which people at or near poverty simply can not afford.  Here is where health care social entrepreneurship comes in.  Finding ways to deliver healthcare in win win situations that serve the poor.  Some of heroic individuals and organizations most successful in addressing this problem happen to be in India. Dr. Devi Shetty’s team atNarayana Hrudayalaya Hospital believe in what I have always thought to be the intuitive grasp of the obvious …that: “children belong to the society….they are not the sole property of their family and so if parents are not in the position to pay the cost of a heart operation, and if the babies come to us, we have to do the operation…” It really is that simple, daaaah! Dr. Shetty and his team are making it possible everyday by continuing to combine a mission drive efficiency and high tech approaches to their socially driven business model.  The founding father of this approach in our modern times is another giant from India whose organization continues to lead the world in innovative approaches to delivering socially conscious high-quality health care to the masses, Dr. Venkataswamy of the Arivand Eye Hospitals: Dr. V believed in absolute and unrelenting belief in one’s value system, working hard to maximize on all resources available, and the financial arrangement where the more better off patients payments for services would cover the cost for those less fortunate. Exploring, understanding and realizing the principles that the organizations of Dr Shetty and Dr. V embody are the first steps in making a once distant dream of affordable health care for all possible.  With this comes the society’s ability to get another step closer to safeguarding the sacredness of children’s laughter and eliminating one of the primary causes of human poverty, health care disparities.  The question is where, when and how will this transformation happen in your community and if YOU will have had anything to do with it.   

Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think

bijan:

Levy: Two years ago, you bought Zappos. Was that an attempt to absorb their so-called culture of happiness and customer service?

Bezos: No, no, no. We like their unique culture, but we don’t want that culture at Amazon. We like our culture, too. Our version of a perfect customer experience is one in which our customer doesn’t want to talk to us. Every time a customer contacts us, we see it as a defect. I’ve been saying for many, many years, people should talk to their friends, not their merchants. And so we use all of our customer service information to find the root cause of any customer contact. What went wrong? Why did that person have to call? Why aren’t they spending that time talking to their family instead of talking to us? How do we fix it? Zappos takes a completely different approach. You call them and ask them for a pizza, and they’ll get out the Yellow Pages for you.

which culture and approach do you like better?