“Better is possible. It does not take genius. It takes diligence.”
Surgeon and writer Atul Gawande’s 2007 book Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance examines how healthcare can improve through the work of people who recognize problems and respond to them. The three sentences featured here begin a longer passage that also names moral clarity, ingenuity, and a willingness to try. They are reproduced in an NIH account of a 2017 conversation with Gawande and in a Canadian Family Physician editorial discussing improvement in medical practice. Keeping that continuation in view matters: he is not claiming that diligence is the only quality a clinician needs. His argument shifts attention from the hope for an exceptional individual to the effort required to make ordinary performance more reliable. Improvement becomes something to investigate and practise, rather than something to await.
In this setting, diligence means sustained attention to what is happening and what could be done differently. The NIH conversation places Gawande’s work within a discussion of systems, teamwork, and healthcare delivery. An insightful person can notice a problem, but noticing does not itself create a dependable response. A process has to be explained, attempted, and examined; colleagues need to know how their contributions fit together. Read this way, the quotation offers a useful distinction between an inspiring proposal and an improvement that survives the demands of daily work. It also leaves room for ingenuity. Persistent repetition of a failing method is not the same as careful effort to understand why it fails. The discipline is to stay with the question while remaining willing to change the answer, including when feedback is uncomfortable.
For a general reader, the principle can be applied to how a care team handles small but consequential uncertainties. Does everyone understand who is responsible for the next step? Is there a way to notice when something has been missed? Can a patient raise a concern without assuming that someone else has already addressed it? These are examples of questions about reliability, not instructions for treating a condition. They make improvement concrete while avoiding the misleading promise that determination can overcome every constraint. Understaffing, inaccessible tools, and conflicting responsibilities can make good work difficult, and responsibility should not be transferred to patients simply because a system is unreliable. Gawande’s line is strongest when effort is supported by honest observation and a workable process. It invites a search for the next achievable improvement, followed by a check that the change actually helps the people who depend on the service.
The excerpt comes from Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance, published in 2007. NIH and Canadian Family Physician reproduce it as part of a longer passage.
The passage continues with moral clarity, ingenuity, and a willingness to try. The short excerpt should be interpreted with those additional qualities in mind.
Diligence describes attentive, persistent work on performance. It should not be confused with repeating a process after evidence shows that it is failing.
Gawande’s discussion of systems and teamwork makes improvement a shared responsibility rather than an expectation of individual brilliance.
The line encourages practical questions about responsibility, feedback, and dependable follow-up. Improvement needs a way to tell whether a change is helping.
The quotation does not promise that effort alone overcomes shortages or other structural constraints.
Explore more "Quotes of The Day"
Discover more notable quotes from influential voices across politics, science, business, technology, sports, and culture. Each quote offers insight into how ideas, beliefs, and decisions shape the world around us.