Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance

In the Afterword, Gawande challenges his reader to answer the question, “How do I really matter?” (250). He offers five basic principles to use to answer this question. First, ask an unscripted question, one that creates “a human connection” (251). Second, don’t complain. Third, count something. For Gawande, “counting something” means being “a scientist in this world” (254), always striving to find a new answer to a problem or a connection to something previously unseen. Fourth, write something. This allows an individual to become “part of a larger world” (256). Fifth, change. For Gawande, embracing change is the catalyst that enables everyone to be better.