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Stephen Lurie, MD, PhD
Rochester, NY

JAMA. 1999;282:9-10.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

I can only see doctors in the early morning on my hospital rounds. I am usually late for my office because I am reluctant to leave their reassuring society—I have gone badly astray before and know the dangers of believing my own voices. As a solo rural practitioner, with the final authority on absolutely everything in my little corner of the planet, I am at constant risk of evolving into a dogmatist, a petulant child, a monster who once had a first name different than "Doctor." Experience may be the best teacher, but it is also a boorish and overbearing companion. I listen to my colleagues' stories for the same reasons that I once attended to my teachers and that I still read the thoughts of strangers: to know that my world is but one small province of a great realm where humility is the condition . . . [Full Text of this Article]