When Breath Becomes Air

by Paul Kalanithi

The fact of death is unsettling. Yet there is no other way to live.

Very profound and true !

When I talked about hope, then, did I really mean “Leave some room for unfounded desire?” No. Medical statistics not only describe numbers such as mean survival, they measure our confidence in our numbers, with tools like confidence levels, confidence intervals, and confidence bounds. So did I mean “Leave some room for a statistically improbable but still plausible outcome—a survival just above the measured 95 percent confidence interval?” Is that what hope was? Could we divide the curve into existential sections, from “defeated” to “pessimistic” to “realistic” to “hopeful” to “delusional”? Weren’t the numbers just the numbers? Had we all just given in to the “hope” that every patient was above average?

Maybe it is lack of confidence in what we know (doctors)

The angst of facing mortality has no remedy in probability.

Maybe, in the absence of any certainty, we should just assume that we’re going to live a long time. Maybe that’s the only way forward.

Nicely argued! Counter intuitive but makes sense

I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.

Shivaji and kamal dialogue comes to mind