Photo by Karan Mandre on Unsplash

Table of contents

1. Preface

2. Main Article

3. OMFS World

4. Stuff (App, Gear)

Preface

This week we had a flat tire. 🛞

I found myself jacking up the car in the dark, in front of someone's backyard and their angry barking dog 🐕 . The complete American experience 😀.

I put on the spare tire with no issues, but the spare tire was the ridiculous modern kind. It’s a narrow tire that has warnings painted all over it. The one that makes you wonder if you will make it home in one piece 😳.

Well, we got home in one piece, and I went to replace it the next day. Having a used car, I assumed it would not end by replacing a single tire.

But our tires were six years old, and since it’s an all-wheel-drive, you can’t change just 2. You have to change all 4.

The first place I went to quoted me a price of $1050.

Yup.

1050 big ones.

We have a very safe and stable car with wide tires. And these tires cost 💰.

Living in the US for a while teaches you a thing or two about negotiating a better price. Sellers usually won’t give you a discount. But if you ask them to break down the price, you will find many “add-ons” you don’t need.

So I brought it down to 710$ for an upgraded set of tires that handle snow better.

A few days later, we got a chance to test them out on the snowy highway. Definitely better.

I guess you can’t put a price tag on safety.

As long as it comes with a 340$ discount 😉.

Today we will discuss how to deal with fear.

Enjoy #28!

“Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless.”
— Chief Seattle

Main Article

Story Time!

🧒 I’m 11 years old and turning on the TV to watch a movie.

📺 Back then, TV had 2 channels, but our apartment building had something no one else had: A VCR channel shared by the building that broadcasts one movie a day to the entire building.

👷 So my movie selection was dictated by some random guy in charge of the VCR…

🍧Anyhow, I sat on the couch with my usual big bowl of yogurt ice cream and waited for the movie to start.

🤾‍♂️Little have I known that this movie would become one of the defining moments of my life.

The movie is called “Defending Your Life.”

It’s about a person who had just passed away, only to find out that there is an afterlife.

But before he’s allowed to advance to the afterlife, he has to prove he has overcome his fears 😱.

I won’t go into more details because I don’t want to spoil it for you.

But the bottom line is that this movie is responsible for how I perceive fear.

📅 As a child, I thought about this movie almost EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I wasn’t thinking about the concept of an afterlife.

I was thinking about whether I let fear dictate my decisions.

And ever since watching it, I’ve never made a decision based on fear. Nor have I let fear influence my actions.

Not even once.

👨‍🏫 Three decades later, fear is irrelevant to my decision-making process.

So how do I do it?

First, I ask myself:

❓”Have I made this decision because I‘m afraid?”

If the answer is “yes,” it’s a fear-dictated decision.

Now let’s discuss how to deal with it.

3️⃣ We’ll break this into three concepts:

🔵The Pain of Rejection is Better than the Pain of Regret

🦀Regret is malignant. It eats you from the inside, and you can never forget regret.

🦝Rejection, on the other hand, may discourage and frustrate you, but it’s temporary.

And that’s a HUGE difference.

❌Earlier in life, I’ve heard the answer “no” more times than I can remember. It can be frustrating, demeaning, embarrassing, and insulting.

But you know what? It’s just rejection. Time will heal it. Often, you will gain something from the rejection. It will make you wiser and mentally tougher. It will prepare you for the bigger challenges ahead.

😵With regret, it will never go away.

Sure, you can learn from it and grow because of it. But at the same time, you will always know you missed an opportunity for something great.

➡️Actionable step: Try and remember your three biggest regrets in life. Write them down. Whenever you’re about to decide out of fear, remind yourself of these regrets.

I don't regret anything, but that doesn't mean that I don't look back and think, “What was I thinking?”
— David Beckham

🔵Just do it

💪That’s a powerful and highly efficient state of mind. When you’re presented with the option of taking action, fear usually dictates not to.

The best thing about “just doing it,” is that it gives you less time to worry.

Generally, I prefer taking action rather than not taking it.

“Just do it” is how I asked my dear wife on a date 18 years ago. 👩‍❤️‍👨

“Just do it” is how I applied to jobs and positions and got accepted.

“Just do it” is how I started this newsletter. 📰

➡️Actionable step: Just do it.

Worry about everything else later.

🔵Don’t let the sun go down on something you might regret. 🌅

Sometimes you’ve already decided to confront fear but postpone your action.

For example, you made a mistake and decided to come clean and admit it to your friend.

🤢 However, you continue feeling bad about your fear until you confront it and admit it to your friend.

🛌 And then you go to bed with this bad feeling. And wake up the following day with the same feeling.

Stop.

Nothing good will come of it.

My goal is never to go to sleep with these thoughts.

🏹 I confront my fears the moment I’ve made a decision. Technology has made it so easy: Make a call, write an email, or go online to sign up for the thing you are scared about.

And then go to bed. 😴

Sometimes, it doesn't go so well. Often, I make a fool out of myself. 🙈

But then I forget about it and go to bed with no regrets. EVERY SINGLE DAY.

➡️Actionable step: Once you’ve decided, act before going to bed.

Wake up with anticipation, not regret.

OMFS World

🥼For the OMFS resident - If a patient presents to your clinic and wants you to take out BOTH lower wisdom teeth because BOTH started to hurt about a week ago, stop and think! 🦷 🦷 🤔

Start by taking a complete history. Ask if they had fever and malaise over the past week 🤒 or whether they spent time around sick children lately.

Then examine them. Specifically, look for BILATERAL gingival swelling and ulcers. If any of these is positive - suspect herpes simplex infection.

If this is the case, you must not extract these teeth!

Two reasons: 1. You can spread the infection 2. The patient might not need extractions at all.

Schedule a follow-up in 2 weeks, and re-evaluate.

🩺For the non-MD medical professional - A crying infant is extremely common 😭 . If the infant looks okay and has no fever, when should we suspect something is wrong?

Typically, a consolable infant who cries less than 3 hours a day is no reason for concern.

3️⃣Suspect baby colic with the rule of 3’s: Younger than 3 months, cries more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week, for 3 weeks or more. Crying usually occurs during the evenings.

If the infant spits up, that’s normal. But if it’s frequent and involves back arching after feeding, suspect GERD.

If the infant has episodes of irritability with legs drawn to the abdomen, examine the diaper. A bloody stool may signify intussusception. And intussusception means you should go to the emergency department.

Stuff

📱Application I use - Microsoft Word. And I hate it.

Nowadays, I’m finalizing a literature review I’m writing with my partners, so I have to use Microsoft Word.

It’s buggy, the add-ons crash, there are compatibility issues, and the menus are cluttered and not intuitive. If I add up the time I wasted solving technical problems while writing the review, I estimate it to be around 20 hours.

That’s a waste of time, Microsoft!

I could have spent this time with my family, cleaned the house, jogged, slept, or, god forbid, read a book.

After submitting this review, I have another manuscript to work on. I will take the opportunity to look for another way of writing.

The candidates are LibreOffice, Notion, and Google Docs. The main issue will be the references.

It’s time scientific journals changed the way we submit references. With all the technological advancements, why can’t we submit the ID numbers of manuscripts instead of the formatted references?

So for all the scientific journals out there: Let us submit using less cluttered text formats such as Markdown, or similar.

Until you do that, millions will continue to waste time on technicalities instead of producing science.

Epilogue

That’s it for this issue.

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Have a great weekend!

Shay