Baba Shiv: Sometimes it's good to give up the driver's seat

44,133 views ・ 2012-07-18

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Translator: Morton Bast Reviewer: Thu-Huong Ha
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I'm going to start on a slightly somber note.
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Two thousand and seven, five years ago,
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my wife gets diagnosed with breast cancer.
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Stage IIB.
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Now, looking back, the most harrowing part of that experience
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was not just the hospital visits --
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these were very painful for my wife, understandably so.
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It was not even the initial shock of knowing that she had breast cancer
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at just 39 years old,
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absolutely no history of cancer in her family.
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The most horrifying and agonizing part of the whole experience
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was we were making decisions after decisions after decisions
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that were being thrust upon us.
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Should it be a mastectomy? Should it be a lumpectomy?
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Should it be a more aggressive form of treatment,
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given that it was stage IIB?
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With all the side effects?
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Or should it be a less aggressive form of treatment?
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And these were being thrust upon us by the doctors.
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Now you could ask this question,
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why were the doctors doing this?
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A simplistic answer would be,
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the doctors are doing this
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because they want to protect themselves legally.
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I think that is too simplistic.
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These are well-meaning doctors,
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some of them have gone on to become very good friends.
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They probably were simply following the wisdom
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that has come down through the ages,
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this adage that when you're making decisions,
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especially decisions of importance,
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it's best to be in charge, it's best to be in control,
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it's best to be in the driver's seat.
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And we were certainly in the driver's seat,
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making all these decisions.
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And let me tell you -- if some of you have been there,
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it was a most agonizing and harrowing experience.
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Which got me thinking.
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I said, is there any validity to this whole adage
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that when you're making decisions,
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it's best to take the driver's seat,
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be in charge, be in control?
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Or are there contexts where we're far better off
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taking the passenger's seat
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and have someone else drive?
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For example, a trusted financial advisor,
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could be a trusted doctor, etc.
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And since I study human decision making,
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I said, I'm going to run some studies
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to find some answers.
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And I'm going to share one of these studies with you today.
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So, imagine that all of you are participants in the study.
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I want to tell you that what you're going to do in the study is,
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you're going to drink a cup of tea.
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If you're wondering why, I'll tell you why in a few seconds from now.
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You are going to solve a series of puzzles,
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and I'm going to show you examples of these puzzles momentarily.
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And the more puzzles you solve,
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the greater the chances that you'll win some prizes.
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Now, why do you have to consume the tea?
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Why? Because it makes a lot of sense:
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In order to solve these puzzles effectively, if you think about it,
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your mind needs to be in two states simultaneously, right?
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It needs to be alert,
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for which caffeine is very good.
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Simultaneously, it needs to be calm --
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not agitated, calm --
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for which chamomile is very good.
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Now comes the between-subjects design,
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the AB design, the AB testing.
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So what I'm going to do is randomly assign you to one of two groups.
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So imagine that there is an imaginary line out here,
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so everyone here will be group A,
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everyone out here will be group B.
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Now, for you folks, what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you these two teas,
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and I'll go ahead and ask you to choose your tea.
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So you can choose whichever tea you want.
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You can decide, what is your mental state:
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OK, I choose the caffeinated tea,
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I choose the chamomile tea.
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So you're going to be in charge, you're going to be in control,
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you're going to be in the driver's seat.
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You folks, I'm going to show you these two teas,
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but you don't have a choice.
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I'm going to give you one of these two teas,
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and keep in mind, I'm going to pick one of these two teas
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at random for you.
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And you know that.
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So if you think about it, this is an extreme-case scenario,
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because in the real world,
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whenever you are taking passenger's seat,
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very often the driver is going to be someone you trust,
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an expert, etc.
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So this is an extreme-case scenario.
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Now, you're all going to consume the tea.
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So imagine that you're taking the tea now,
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we'll wait for you to finish the tea.
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We'll give another five minutes for the ingredient to have its effects.
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Now you're going to have 30 minutes to solve 15 puzzles.
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Here's an example of the puzzle you're going to solve.
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Anyone in the audience want to take a stab?
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Audience member: Pulpit! Baba Shiv: Whoa! OK.
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That's cool.
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Yeah, so what we'd do if we had you who gave the answer
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as a participant,
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we would have calibrated the difficulty level
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of the puzzles to your expertise.
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Because we want these puzzles to be difficult.
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These are tricky puzzles,
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because your first instinct is to say "tulip."
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And then you have to unstick yourself.
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Right?
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So these have been calibrated to your level of expertise,
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because we want this to be difficult,
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and I'll tell you why, momentarily.
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Now, here's another example.
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Anyone? This is much more difficult.
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Audience member: Embark. BS: Yeah. Wow! OK.
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So, yeah, so this is, again, difficult.
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You'll say "kamber," then you'll go, "maker," and all that,
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and then you can unstick yourself.
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So you have 30 minutes now to solve these 15 puzzles.
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Now, the question we're asking here is, in terms of the outcome --
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and it comes in the number of puzzles solved --
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will you in the driver's seat end up solving more puzzles
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because you are in control,
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you could decide which tea you would choose,
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or would you be better off,
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in terms of the number of puzzles solved?
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And, systemically, what we will show,
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across a series of studies,
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is that you, the passengers,
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even though the tea was picked for you at random,
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will end up solving more puzzles than you, the drivers.
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We also observe another thing,
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and that is, you folks not only are solving fewer puzzles,
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you're also putting less juice into the task -- less effort,
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you're less persistent, and so on.
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How do we know that?
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Well, we have two objective measures.
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One is, what is the time, on average, you're taking
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in attempting to solve these puzzles?
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You will spend less time compared to you.
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Second, you have 30 minutes to solve these;
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are you taking the entire 30 minutes
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or are you giving up before the 30 minutes elapse?
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You will be more likely to give up before the 30 minutes elapse,
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compared to you.
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So you're putting in less juice,
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and therefore, the outcome: fewer puzzles solved.
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That brings us now to: why does this happen?
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And under what situations -- when -- would we see this pattern of results
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where the passenger is going to show better, more favorable outcomes,
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compared to the driver?
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It all has to do with when you face what I call the INCA.
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It's an acronym that stands for the nature of the feedback you're getting
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after you made the decision.
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So if you think about it, in this particular puzzle task --
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it could happen in investing in the stock market,
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very volatile out there,
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it could be the medical situation --
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the feedback here is immediate.
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You know the feedback, whether you're solving the puzzles or not.
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Right? Second, it is negative.
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Remember, the deck was stacked against you,
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in terms of the difficulty level of these puzzles.
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And this can happen in the medical domain.
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For example, very early on in the treatment,
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things are negative, the feedback, before things become positive.
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Right? It can happen in the stock market.
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Volatile stock market, getting negative feedback, it is also immediate.
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And the feedback in all these cases is concrete, it's unambiguous;
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you know if you've solved the puzzles or not.
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Now, the added one,
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apart from this immediacy, negative, this concreteness --
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now you have a sense of agency.
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You were responsible for your decision.
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So what do you do?
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You focus on the foregone option.
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You say, you know what?
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I should have chosen the other tea.
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(Laughter)
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That casts your decision in doubt,
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reduces the confidence you have in the decision,
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the confidence you have in the performance,
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the performance in terms of solving the puzzles.
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And therefore less juice into the task,
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fewer puzzles solved
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and less favorable outcomes compared to you folks.
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And this can happen in the medical domain, if you think about it, right?
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A patient in the driver's seat, for example.
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Less juice, which means keeping herself or himself
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less physically fit, physically active to hasten the recovery process,
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which is what is often advocated.
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You probably wouldn't do that.
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And therefore, there are times when you're facing the INCA,
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when the feedback is going to be immediate, negative, concrete
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and you have the sense of agency,
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where you're far better off taking the passenger's seat
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and have someone else drive.
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Now, I started off on a somber note.
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I want to finish up on a more upbeat note.
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It has now been five years, slightly more than five years,
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and the good news, thank God, is that the cancer is still in remission.
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So it all ends well.
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But one thing I didn't mention was that very early on into her treatment,
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my wife and I decided that we would take the passenger's seat.
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And that made so much of a difference
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in terms of the peace of mind that came with that;
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we could focus on her recovery.
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We let the doctors make all the decisions
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and take the driver's seat.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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