After Teeth and Skin, what’s next? Hair?

I read this article in the Guardian today and wondered if there are any dentists involved in the hair game. It strikes me that if someone has a need but they’re not sure who to trust the why not their local GDP? The same old horror stories are mentioned and Tom who was quoted in the article summed things up in a way that reminded me of plenty of dental stories. “Classic red flags are: ‘We can get you in tomorrow’, ‘We’ll offer you a discount’, and ‘We’ve just had a cancellation’,” Stevenson says. “What you want is a clinic who can’t get you in for six months; where the price is the price. But when you’re vulnerable, you hear what you want to hear and a lot of clinics know what buttons to press.” Other warning signs, he says, include claims of “guaranteed results”, “unlimited grafts” and “scarless surgery”.

Because transplant surgery involves cutting the skin, any provider in England must be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC)….Beyond that, there is only guidance for clinics to follow….there is no law to prevent anyone cutting into a patient’s scalp…

I’m sure if I had this thought now there will be some entrepreneurial soul who is already doing teeth, skin, hair…and nails?

Taken from The Guardian webpage

The Monday Morning Quote #660

As I start continue some changes in my life this poem reflects how I believe many of us have felt at times over the past 15 months. In my case it has been the usual Festina lente (make haste slowly) as opposed to “Big Bang”.

At the mid-point of the path through life, I found
Myself lost in a wood so dark, the way
Ahead was blotted out. The keening sound
I still make shows how hard it is to say
How harsh and bitter that place felt to me–
Merely to think of it renews the fear–
So bad that death by only a degree
Could possibly be worse. As you shall hear,
It led to good things too, eventually,
But there and then I saw no sign of those,
And can't say even now how I had come
To be there, stunned and following my nose
Away from the straight path.

From Clive James’ translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

The Monday Morning Quote #659

“The pursuit of money for its own sake is a pathological condition. The proper aim of money is to provide leisure.”

John Maynard Keynes

The Monday Morning Quote #658

Nice quote from Plant plus a more than 6 minutes of strutting, plank-spanking, and the rhythm section from heaven.

“The past is a stepping-stone, not a millstone.” 

Robert Plant

The Monday Morning Quote #657

“If we can winter this one out, we can summer anywhere.“

Seamus Heaney

https://www.seamusheaney.com/news-and-events/2020/4/10/if-we-winter-this-one-out-we-can-summer-anywhere

Quentin presents – The Windowizer

Someone had to do it, and at last it has arrived. As its inventor Quentin Stafford-Fraser modestly describes it, “An important invention for a post-lockdown world”.

The Monday Morning Quote #656

“The inquiry in England is not whether a man has talents and genius, but whether he is passive and polite and a virtuous ass and obedient to noblemen’s opinions in art and science. If he is, he is a good man. If not, he must be starved.”

— William Blake

210503 #

Video Killed The Radio Star…oh no it didn’t.

In spite of Messrs Downes and Horne’s prophecy it didn’t.

In much the same way that the death of dentistry has been prophesied many times in the 40 odd years of my involvement it hasn’t died, yet. Evolved, grown, changed in many ways certainly but rumours of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

I remember being told that a vaccine to rid the world of Dental Caries was just around the corner, it didn’t appear but did contribute to our knowledge of the disease.

It is easy to say that the old ways are gone, the new will sweep everything away just look out! Two years ago the talk was of how the “clever” dentists having made a killing with Short Term Orthodontics were now looking to Facial Aesthetics for their big bucks.

I’m reminded of the story Colin Hall Dexter told of dentists complaining that areas were “worked out” as if they were talking about gold, diamond, or probably, coal mines.

Change is rarely, if ever, like that. Change does occur but when? Overnight? Not even Covid was that quick. There are always those who wake early in the morning and go to it, those who arrive at 8.55 and somewhat bewildered, deal with the day and of course the laggards who say “What happened, nobody told me, they wouldn’t do that to us. 

Take a look at Steven Pressfield‘s opinion.

Video Didn’t Kill the Radio Star

 

https://youtu.be/Iwuy4hHO3YQ

The Weekend Read – PAMBO by Baker & Davies

I read this after meeting Michael Baker recently and being impressed with his ideas. When he couldn’t quite reconcile existing management theories with the real world he decided to write his own practical book. A fable of a newly appointed manager discovering that life after promotion isn’t quite as easy as it looks, it deals with the problems of getting the best out of people.

He meets his saviour, Jan, by chance on the train travelling from his office in Bristol to his home in Cardiff. She introduces him to the concept of PAMBO which is summed up as Performance = Ability x Motivation x Behaviour x Opportunity.

Coming in at 142 pages it’s a relatively short read which is big on practical advice and will stimulate and help anyone who works with people, face-to-face or at a distance. Great for new managers or those who want to remind themselves that things are best kept simple. Recommended.

From Amazon HERE

British Gas, how are Sid’s grandchildren?

#The older I get the less I understand.

From Jonty Bloom’s, blog: …..Just look at British Gas; it is in the middle of firing its engineers and re-hiring them on worse terms and conditions, I have not heard anything from the government on this and the reason is simple. They don’t care, in fact they think it is good for business….gradually remove employment rights and then watch as big business squeeze their workers until the pips squeak. It should mean cheaper services and bigger profits, in theory. What it really means is lower productivity and wages…..gradually remove employment rights and then watch as big business squeeze their workers until the pips squeak. It should mean cheaper services and bigger profits, in theory. What it really means is lower productivity and wages. Also it costs me more to insure my boiler with British Gas, than the rest of the house combined. Anyone like to explain that one?

Perhaps management had something to do with it? The Gas Act 1986 sold the company to private investors as British Gas plc….read the full story here. Was Sid right to get involved or are his children and grandchildren picking up the tab? Especially the ones who trained as Gas Engineers…

https://youtu.be/nedVpG-GjkE

#1856 210429