M. Gessen: evaluation

Transcript context

…You went to the Harvard economist David Laibson, right? One of the people I went to, yes, and many other people. But yes, that was actually one of the best interviews, although he . . . We devised a formula together, and the formula suggested that I should have both the oophorectomy and the mastectomy. But then I ended up deciding to just have the mastectomy. But one of the things I realized — and this is just a small illustration of people’s heuristics — I realized that doctors were pushing women to have oophorectomies, the removal of the ovaries, and not mastectomies because an oophorectomy is a very easy surgery, and you cannot see outward expressions of it. The easy surgery has a much greater impact on health. Everything in your body is hormone dependent in some way or another, so it completely changes the functioning of the body. Whereas the more complicated surgery that a mastectomy is and that has clearly visible results actually has no impact on health whatsoever. But doctors have this very strong bias that results from what is an easier surgery with a shorter recovery time, but then no long-term consequences seems like a better solution to them. How did that whole experience change your sense of what is valuable in life?…

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