healthcare epistemocrat: January 2011

What is an Epistemocrat?

Caveat: Individuality is the spice of life ... Cura Personalis.

History: In his book, The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb defines an epistemocrat as "someone of epistemic humility, who holds his own knowledge in greatest suspicion." For Jerome Groopman, this person continues to search for answers by asking, "What else could it be?" Richard Feynman recommends to "keep the door to the unknown ajar." From Chester Newland's perspective, an epistemocrat never stops "searching for human dignity." Like Socrates said, "Wisdom is knowing how little we know."

Epoche, a Greek word that translates as "suspending judgment," lies at the heart of an epistemocrat's quest.

Today, an epistemocrat is a person who, concerned with what he or she does not know, engages in life-long learning and erudition to hedge dynamically against and to embrace uncertainty.

Essentially, an epistemocrat is a practitioner (a thinker and a doer; a Jesuit-spirited "contemplative in action") who respects (via paradoxes) the humble limits of being human and searches (via thinkering) for practical, real-world solutions that help us live and grow together in our increasingly complex and recursive world: diversify.

What is m=1/n=1 thinkering?

Thinking + Tinkering = thinkering.

It's an approach to searching and acting that combines m=1 personal my-thology and n=1 self-experimentation. Personal my-thology encompasses all the unique thoughts, feelings, inklings, beliefs, and reflections that flow through your stream of consciousness each day: your m=1 thinking. Self-experimentation is awareness of all the feedback and insights perceived from daily experiences: your n=1 tinkering. Hybridizing these two activities produces the bimodal modus operandi of thinkering.

The m=1/n=1 notation captures and respects individuality when it comes to the art and science of living gracefully.