Don't stop caring

I started watching New Amsterdam this afternoon.

Praise, this is a big deal for me. I have found that I can see my fears as much as I can't experience them—heights, for example—until last week.

I do not like blood. I do not like hospitals. I do not like wounds.

Yet, here I am, on the fourth episode already—without missing a single scene.

You want to know what I think?

I think the entire series is idealist bullshit, that really doesn't exist in the real world. It doesn't make sense.

Having someone who 100% cares about other people and tailors his work to provide true, proper healthcare to them is damn idealist.

But as much as I love being the reality checker, I find myself asking the question—so what?

So what if it doesn't exist? What if it doesn't make sense to me? Does it make sense on its own? Does unfettered healthcare seem like a better place for the world? Is care, kindness, nice, empathy idealist?

It would've been nice if it stopped there, but I find myself asking—do I care? Can I care? Should I?

Not as a doctor, as a designer, do I care?

Is the job I do to solve the problem or to improve my portfolio? Do I make one more person happy about his business or do I make hundreds of designers proud of my doggedness?

Do I care?

Praise, do you care?

I believe design saves the world ... can save the world. Have I saved one person with design?

Max Goodwin is foolish by reality standards. He's driven by some blind passion, completely oblivious to the hospital's business needs. "Patient-first", his manifesto said.

Definitely delusional.

That's what we are afraid we'll hear when we do our job the way we want to—the way we are passionate about it.

We are scared to make the extra effort, push in that extra deliverable, ask for more time, do more stuff—because it's delusional to put yourself in that position.

But you want to do it 'cos you care.

And caring, Praise, means doing extra.

Happy Sunday.

PS:

Remember that letter I wrote about "why I write?" Scrap whatever I said.

In truth, I write because I care. I write because you care about what I have to say—and that, I'm grateful for.

Thank you.

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