Atul Gawande Education Of A Knife Summary

Most of the time, when an idea, project or activity seems daunting, your first reaction might be to “leave it to the experts.” This may seem the easiest route, considering that it takes the challenge off of your shoulders and places the weight of the problem on someone that you deem better equipped to handle it. However, it sometimes isn’t the most rewarding or beneficial in the long term. Some people believe that one is born with a special, innate talent that gives them a significant advantage in obtaining mastery in certain areas. While it may depend on the respective field, it is arguably impossible to have a complete understanding or expertise in a field if there was no genuine interest, previous training, practice, or knowledge. In his piece, “Education of a Knife,” Atul Gawande, an expert surgeon, claims, “Surgeons, as a group adhere to a curious egalitarianism. They believe in practice, not talent” (Gawande 19). While he claims that this holds true in the art of surgery, I argue that it is a universal …show more content…
A few times, I’ll admit, some pieces of chicken burned, too much salt was added, and many smoke alarms went off. But slowly I found the best way to cut the carrots, the right time to add the noodles, and the right amount of freshly ground black pepper. It took over 30 batches of soup that my family happily evaluated for me until I found the best way to prepare, combine, and cook all of the ingredients to create what I believe to be the best concoction of chicken noodle soup. This process is a perfect application of Gawande’s interpretation of practice. He says, “For days and days, you make out only the fragments of what to do. And then one day you’ve got the thing whole” (Gawande 21). Here, Gawande highlights the fact that it takes multiple rounds of trial and error until you emerge with perfection and