I’m in that strange in-between phase again.
Recently, I:
- drafted a memoir and a kid’s adventure book,
- attended the Dubai Future Forum,
- created the Ten #LessonsFromChaos Primer,
- developed the SHOCK Index to assess projects,
- revisited ideas I hadn’t thought about in years,
From Chaos to Clarity
I’ve distilled twenty years in war zones and disaster areas into 10 Lessons from Chaos: practical, blunt takeaways for anyone operating in high-pressure, uncertain environments.
📄 Download the PDF to see the full list 👇
💬 Tell me which one resonates most
#LessonsFromChaos
Everyone has an agenda. Most miss the lesson. I did at first.
Dubai next week: finding the folks who want to learn from chaos.
#LessonsFromChaos #DubaiFutureForum
After reading a draft of my memoir, a friend decided my code name should be “gadfly,” someone who pokes at comfortable assumptions in #globalhealth and development.
He was being kind, but I’ll take it.
#LessonsFromChaos
After the tsunami in Indonesia, I told the team to grab lunch and then run the response without me.
They crushed it.
“You may be expat, but I’m expert.”
#LessonsFromChaos
link 👇
Lesson from Chaos #1: Rule number one, have fun
Thirteen hours on an overcrowded bus in Guinea. No AC. Dust, chaos, laughter.
Fun.
If you’re not having fun in the field, you’re probably not much help either.
#LessonsFromChaos
link 👇
The hardest part wasn’t leaving surgery or academia.
It was letting go of the idea that I had to keep proving I mattered.
Turns out, being “just Adam” was enough all along.
#LessonsFromChaos
Purpose is fine. So is boredom.
Sometimes meaning comes from the work. Sometimes it’s from the pause after.
Both count.
#LessonsFromChaos
This isn’t advice.
It’s just a reminder that you can stop striving without falling apart if you know who you are underneath the title.
#LessonsFromChaos
I used to divide my life into chapters: the surgeon, the researcher, the dad.
Now I see it was all one story about curiosity, consequence, and connection.
You can evolve without erasing your past.
#LessonsFromChaos
It’s a privilege to step away. I get that.
But if you’ve reached “enough” and keep chasing “more,” that’s not ambition, that’s inertia.
#LessonsFromChaos
We’ve built a culture that worships progress: more money, more prestige, more everything.
No one tells you it’s okay to get off the highway once you’ve gone far enough.
#LessonsFromChaos
I’ve been a surgeon, an advocate, a burned-out academic, and a father.
Took me years to realize they’re all the same person.
Lessons from Chaos is about the slow realization, that the title doesn’t matter nearly as much as the person underneath it.
#LessonsFromChaos
Sometimes I feel bad about it, but honestly I’d sooner go back to a war zone than chaperone an elementary school trip or attend a PTA meeting.
Anyone else feel this way?
#LessonsFromChaos #Parenting #Alaska
After years of going into war zones and disaster areas, I now live in Alaska and am a stay at home dad for two boys.
I traded one type of Chaos for another.
#LessonsFromChaos #Parenting
In South Sudan, I once left the OR to work in a cholera camp. I helped patients survive. Some expats were furious.
Sometimes doing the right thing makes you the bad guy.
#LessonsFromChaos
The weirdest part of humanitarian work isn’t the danger. It’s the absurdity.
#LessonsFromChaos #WHS2025
Surgery in a war zone isn’t just about saving lives. It’s about controlling chaos long enough to make it look like order.
I learned that the hard way.
#LessonsFromChaos #WHS2025
Ever wonder what it’s really like on an @MSF mission or what you would do if the OR lights went out mid-surgery?
It’s not just medicine. It’s a mix of chaos, survival, and absurdity. I wrote Lessons from Chaos to try and make sense of it.
#LessonsFromChaos
Surgeons are supposed to be cool under pressure. But nothing prepares you for operating in a converted chicken farm with missiles flying overhead.
That’s chaos.
#LessonsFromChaos #surgery #war #memoir
Don’t have a literary agent (yet) but spent the day working on a proposal for my memoir #LessonsFromChaos 🤞
Working with the US military, I taught soldiers about humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, including human rights and international humanitarian law. It helped commanders accomplish their mission and saved military and civilian lives. #LessonsFromChaos #humanitarian #military #ethics
Once in Sierra Leone, surgery almost stopped for want of light bulbs.
#LessonsFromChaos #globalhealth #surgery #SierraLeone
I once stopped operating to help in a cholera camp. Some international staff weren’t happy. But it helped more patients survive.
Sometimes doing the right thing means changing your focus.
#LessonsFromChaos #humanitarian #cholera #globalhealth
The myth: humanitarian missions are heroic.
The reality: they’re messy, political, and often absurd. LESSONS FROM CHAOS is my take. Think Anthony Bourdain with a scalpel.
#LessonsFromChaos #memoir #humanitan
Hospitals without water. Operating by flashlight. Crocodile and hippo attacks. War wounds that never made the news. That’s the reality I lived as a surgeon in impossible places. #LessonsFromChaos #globalhealth #surgeon #memoir
Ever wonder what it’s really like on an @MSF mission?
It’s not just medicine. It’s chaos, survival, and the absurdity of being human. That’s what my memoir LESSONS FROM CHAOS is about. #LessonsFromChaos #MSF #memoir #WritingCommunity
