Everything is written with the idea of persuading the reader; either explicitly—what is written is true, or implicitly—what is written is informative or funny, thereby persuading you that the author is informative or funny. Aristotle employed three forms of rhetorical persuasion; pathos, ethos, and logos. For those of you thinking, “Yeah, but you’re no Aristotle,” you’ll get no argument from me, but you have to admit, it’s a good likeness.

I basically write from whatever stream of clatter happens to be knocking about at the time. For me, writing is a little like speaking in parenthesis, only a little quieter and with more ambiguity. So, what is lurking up there at the moment? Sure you want to know?

I’m trying to convince my son the futility of not doing something correctly the first time he does it, arguing that it takes twice as long to do it wrong as it does to do it correctly. I call it the DIRT-FIT Principle—Do It Right the FIrst Time. For instance—loading the dishwasher. It takes a certain amount of time after clearing the counter to place the dishes, glasses, and utensils in the dishwasher pell-mell. It takes twice as long to redo it.  The same principle applies to making his bed, putting away his shoes, and brushing his teeth.

The same principle applies to implementing an EHR system. It costs twice as much to put it in twice as it does to implement it correctly the first time. I bet you know a hospital who is busily implementing EHR 2.0.  There is the difference between EHR implementations and sons. Implementations have the right not to do it correctly the first time—my son doesn’t.