What is The Thoughtful Intensivist about?
Introducing myself to new readers
I could simply say it is about medical epistemology but I know many would run away after reading this word. Stay here!
Thank you for staying with me. Epistemology is a vast and complex field that could be explained as the philosophy of knowledge and science. It deals with questions like “What is knowledge?”, “What is truth?”, or “What is knowable?”.
Far-fetched? I am a critical care physician, not a philosopher. I'll bring it home. My perspective is encapsulated in the question, “How can I know what I know about critical care?”.
This publication is in part a midlife crisis project. I recently turned 50 and I am fully aware it is more likely two-thirds than the middle of one's life. When I think of finitude, I am suspicious of contemporary trends like anti-aging medicine and its ethos of attachment to self. Eight months ago, after reading “From Strength to Strength” twice, I quit my two ICU Director jobs. I returned to regular ICU shifts and cleared more time for teaching.
Of course, thinking only about paychecks, I was bold and reckless like a teenager. It is not the habitual GenXer way of moving in the labor market. I was somehow quitting the persona I had built. The counterpart to this move was finally starting to write and swim more seriously. A new persona, if you will.
The last 8 months gifted me this publication and the co-authorship of a book I deeply believe in. I was blessed with so many people interested in my writings. I think there is a heart in what I am doing here. I post short epistemological essays roughly every other week, carefully built as a chronicle and wrapped in mockery and provocation. I want to spark insights and bewilderment while seeding key concepts. These carefully crafted posts are unique in content and format. Each one took me several hours to write and 30 years to build the repertoire they come from.
In The Thoughtful Intensivist, you will find the world's most iconoclastic and insightful commentary on critical care research. Yes, bold and reckless like an over-confident teenager. Is there another way to write?