By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd
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A paradox is a self-contradictory statement. And, the ancient Greeks were well aware that a paradox can take us outside our usual way of thinking. They combined the prefix para – (“beyond” or “outside of”) with the verb dokein (“to think”), forming paradoxos, an adjective meaning “contrary to expectation.” Latin speakers used that word as the basis for a noun paradoxum, which English speakers borrowed during the 1500s to create paradox.
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Paradox of Education: Cumulative Advantage and Disadvantage
Classic Definition: Social status snowballs in either direction because people like associating with successful people, so doors are opened for them. And, folks avoid associating with unsuccessful people, for whom doors are closed.
SALARY PARADOX: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2025/08/20/paradox-physician-compensation-v-medical-practice-value/
Modern Circumstance: Education’s positive effect on health gets larger as people age. The large socioeconomic differences in health among older Americans mostly accrue earlier in adulthood on gradients set by educational attainment. Education develops abilities that help individuals gain control of their own lives, encouraging and enabling a healthy life.
Paradox Example: The health-related consequences of education cumulate on many levels, from the socioeconomic (including work and income) and behavioral (including health behaviors like exercising) to the physiological and intra-cellular. Some accumulations even influence each other.
FINANCIAL PARADOX: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2025/05/26/financial-paradox-compounding-interest-and-time/
In particular, a low sense of control over one’s own life accelerates physical impairment, which in turn decreases the sense of control. That feedback progressively concentrates good physical functioning and a firm sense of personal control together in the better educated while concentrating physical impairment and a sense of powerlessness together in the less well educated, creating large differences in health in old age.
SOCIAL MEDIA PARADOX: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2025/06/29/paradox-social-media/
COMMENTS APPRECIATED
SPEAKING: Dr. Marcinko will be speaking and lecturing, signing and opining, teaching and preaching, storming and performing at many locations throughout the USA this year! His tour of witty and serious pontifications may be scheduled on a planned or ad-hoc basis; for public or private meetings and gatherings; formally, informally, or over lunch or dinner. All medical societies, financial advisory firms or Broker-Dealers are encouraged to submit an RFP for speaking engagements: CONTACT: Ann Miller RN MHA at MarcinkoAdvisors@outlook.com -OR- http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com
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Filed under: Ask a Doctor, Ethics, Experts Invited, mental health | Tagged: anxiety, depression, Ethics, health, jordan ellenberg, mental health, paradox, paradox education, psychology | Leave a comment »















