The English language is a glorious hotchpotch. Built on Germanic foundations, it has significant influences from Norse, French, Latin and Greek but has also borrowed words from languages as diverse as those from the Indian subcontinent and even the native languages of the Caribbean. All of these influences make the language a bit bonkers; where any rules exist, they seem to be broken as often as they are observed.

Since it was created by Queen Victoria in 1856 only 3 men have won the Victoria Cross twice, two of these were Medical Officers, and one of these was Noel Chavasse.

People working within organisations will keep getting promoted until they are incompetent to do their job. This is then the level where they will remain, no longer competent enough to be promoted further, and also no longer displaying the competence which led to them being promoted in the first place.

Imagine yourself as a weary traveller in the 18th Century arriving, after a long and hard day’s journey, at your inn for the night. What could be more welcome than a decent piece of roast beef or pork? As the inn keeper you would of course want to offer this to your guests but roasting large hunks of meet in those days was hard work. It all needed to be spit-roasted over an open fire, turned throughout the cooking process to ensure an even result.

In the modern world the dominance of a counting system based on the number 10 is so complete that it is hard to imagine using a number system with a different base number.

What can we rely on if not the evidence of our own senses? Seeing is believing, is it not? Vision feels like something concrete and immutable and colour perception in particular seems like something that should beyond outside influence. My own understanding of colour perception was that it was a more or less a passive thing. Light hits at object, the object reflects certain wavelengths of that light into our eye and the brain recognises those wavelengths as colours.

But this, in fact, is wrong.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a psychological phenomenon where people with a little knowledge on a topic massively overestimate their knowledge or competence in that subject. This results in an over-inflated self-assessment of their abilities and strong, but misplaced convictions relating to it. In essence, they don’t know enough to know where the gaps in their knowledge lie. Without knowing what they don’t know, they are convinced that what they do know is absolutely right and correct.

A well run workplace should in itself be a place that enhances well-being. The need for a well-being programme sets alarm bells ringing. It smacks of papering over the cracks.

Few would argue against the fact that young people throughout the Western world are experiencing a mental health crisis. From my vantage point in general practice, levels of unhappiness, anxiety and self-harm in this age group seem to be sky rocketing. Secondary care services for mental health in children and teenagers are completely overwhelmed and this is despite the fact that they only deal with the sickest tip of a very big iceberg.