A review by wdudley89
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande

4.0

Gawande offers a series of well-written and insightful reflections upon his experiences in a variety of medical contexts. The overarching theme of his investigations is the nature of performance: how does an individual or an institution become a "positive deviant," achieving success at a much higher rate than the established norm? The stories he tells are well chosen and thought provoking, but the book often feels like a collection of independent essays rather than a unified meditation. To be fair, the subtitle, "A Surgeon's Notes on Performance," indicates as much, so the reader should not be surprised. The Afterward is worth the price of admission, offering Gawande's advice to medical students on how to become top performers, in the broad sense, in their own lives and work.