I thought I was in a Kafka novel. One of my colleagues has worked with the same surgeon for 17 years. They did a busy all-day list. They arrived first thing in the morning, and just worked on through the day until the work was done. Sometime around midday, they'd reach a mutual decision to stop, grab a sandwich, and then get on with the list. There would be a 20-minute break.
Then someone started counting. They didn't count how many patients were operated …