{"id":172427,"date":"2024-10-15T12:10:24","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T10:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=172427"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:31","slug":"kuan-chung-prefers-to-do-many-things-all-at-the-same-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2024\/10\/15\/kuan-chung-prefers-to-do-many-things-all-at-the-same-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuan Chung prefers to do many things all at the same time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life means making choices, but Kuan Chung doesn\u2019t like to limit himself to what he already knows. He\u2019s always looking for new worlds and possibilities. You could call it The pleasure of finding things out<\/em>, which is also the title of a book by Richard Feynman that Chung read when he was a medical student.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLeroy Verbeet<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

When Chung was at secondary school, he and his friend wondered what the best way was for them to learn. This question led them to a technique developed by Richard Feynman, an American physicist and Nobel Prize winner. He says you know that you understand a concept when you can explain it to a child in your own language. \u201cVery simple really\u201d, Chung says, but it impressed him enough to read Feynman\u2019s book The pleasure of finding things out<\/em> a few years later.<\/p>\n\t

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Number of books a year:<\/strong> “I listened to 39 books last year, but I hardly ever read an actual book. Maybe once a year.”
\nPrimary motivation:<\/strong> To learn things. New information and perspectives.
\nFavourite genre:<\/strong> Non-fiction
\nLast book read:<\/strong> The Man in the High Castle<\/em>. I read it with my book club.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

A world of ideas<\/h2>

The pleasure of finding things out<\/em> is a collection of Feynman\u2019s lectures, interviews and speeches and gives the reader an insight into the author\u2019s life as a scientist. In this book, Feynman argues that ideas are important, not rewards. When Feynman was a young graduate, he boldly told Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr that he didn\u2019t care who Bohr was; Feynman wanted to know what Bohr had to say. \u201cThat perspective on life, being interested in ideas and not listening to men in suits, that did<\/em> inspire me\u201d, Chung says.<\/p>\n

Everyone is someone<\/h2>

Chung himself struggles with authority. This caused some unrest between him and his parents sometimes\u00a0 \u2013 \u2018because of my Asian background\u2019. But even when he had been living away from home for a while and doing internships in a hospital, he still had to bite his lip every now and again. \u201cI\u2019m not the type to look up to a cardiologist simply because he\u2019s higher up in the hierarchy. I take everyone seriously, regardless of who they are. I\u2019ve seen hospital doctors look down at cleaners; but they\u2019re people with families, hobbies and personalities too.\u201d Today, Chung is a trainee GP. He says that although the various forms of leadership and supervision this involves have created new power relationships, he has learned to embrace them. \u201cI move with the system; that\u2019s just part of the learning process\u201d, he explains.<\/p>\n

Two types of GPs<\/h2>

As a trainee GP, Chung is learning about the difficulty he has channelling authority, but he\u2019s also getting to know himself better. There are roughly two types of GPs. One will start a patient\u2019s treatment almost straight away, while the other will consider the situation for a while first. Chung is the second type of GP. \u201cYou\u2019ve often got time on your side,\u201d he says. \u201cMany things go away on their own after a while.\u201d This isn\u2019t really a perspective that he learnt from his parents. Although his mother might sometimes say something with traditional Chinese medicine in mind. \u201cFor example: you get mouth ulcers from eating fried food. There\u2019s probably a grain of truth in it, but I don\u2019t use it in my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chung does believe in the power of healthy eating and exercise, but only gets 15 minutes with each patient. So, there\u2019s often no time to discuss a patient\u2019s lifestyle habits. Let alone have a conversation about someone\u2019s ideas, Chung\u2019s own diverse interests or about \u2018the pleasure of finding things out\u2019. The clock never stops ticking for a GP. This requires a results-oriented approach, which Chung is having to get used to.<\/p>\n

The pleasure of finding things out<\/h2>

Chung\u2019s pleasure of finding things out remains intact. In his free time, he organises the Science Caf\u00e9, \u2018to make science accessible to everyone\u2019 and recently started a book club \u2018to broaden his book choices\u2019. This leaves Chung 15 hours a week for sport. He is currently training for a triathlon and wants to do an Ironman one day (a 3.8-km swim, 180-km bike ride and a 42.2-km run, ed.). <\/em>He\u2019s already thinking about what he\u2019d like to do after that. Long-distance cycling perhaps. Because cycling is his favourite thing to do. But if he could choose any sport, it would have to be surfing.<\/p>\n\t

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Kuan Chung studied Medicine, Clinical Epidemiology and Health Economics Policy & Law at Erasmus University. He is currently combining his GP training with a PhD programme on allergies in children at Erasmus MC. He and other PhD Students also organise the monthly Science Caf\u00e9 in Rotterdam to make science accessible to the general public.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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