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1. tmtvl+(OP)[view] [source] 2025-12-06 13:50:01
Would you rather have a heart surgeon who studied for years, spent years practising and assisting, and took time building up the skills needed; or a heart surgeon who just flipped through a book and watched a video on heart surgery?

Finding the golden middle ground between 'move fast and break things' and 'move slow and fix things' is difficult and as the stakes get higher it's only natural to favour slow, steady, and careful over flying by the seat of your pants.

replies(3): >>toss1+j7 >>wongar+e8 >>wavemo+6h
2. toss1+j7[view] [source] 2025-12-06 14:57:31
>>tmtvl+(OP)
>>golden middle ground

Exactly!

You want the surgeon who took the time to study deeply, then went into practice doing as many surgeries as possible, but then also taking the time to review/debrief/analyze the process and results. So, yes, it is a real mix or "golden middle ground" with excursions to both extremes. The opposite of a one-size-fits-all approach to each step.

3. wongar+e8[view] [source] 2025-12-06 15:06:17
>>tmtvl+(OP)
On the other hand I'd prefer a heart surgeon who performed a hundred low-stakes surgeries and is now on his first heart surgery over the heart surgeon who has done one heart surgery before but has otherwise no surgery experience

As the stakes get higher you have to slow down, but imho the right takeaway from that is that you need to find low-stakes environments where you can move fast, in addition to whatever high-stakes environment you have

replies(1): >>igouy+sw
4. wavemo+6h[view] [source] 2025-12-06 16:12:35
>>tmtvl+(OP)
That metaphor is a bit strained, since in reality, heart surgery is so high stakes that there is no (legal) way to just crank through hundreds of them for the purpose of racking up experience. (You can operate on cadavers, sure, but it's not like the cadaver is going to have a beating heart, nor exhibit the exact medical condition you're practicing for.)

So yeah, it's always better to have lots of experience, and moving fast is indeed great for quickly acquiring experience, But in some fields and situations you can't afford to move fast, you just have to spend the necessary years.

Writing is a much better example - many great writers talk about how they write all the time, every day, but very little of it gets successfully published. But the practice gives them good experience.

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5. igouy+sw[view] [source] [discussion] 2025-12-06 18:19:28
>>wongar+e8
Wrong criteria. Evaluate the number of successful outcomes!

(Including the cancelled interventions when the surgeon recognized that surgery was not required.)

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