Hey what’s up, what’s up, Rosh back at it 😎.
I cannot believe we’re almost at the end of August right now 🤯. Feels like the summer has just flown by and slipped through my hands ☀️⏳. Anyways, hope people are doing good.
This week, I’m switching it away from the medicine and residency talk 🩺➡️🧠. I wanted to discuss a concept I recently learned about (shoutout to Ali Abdaal 🙌). It’s called the Region Beta Paradox — and I thought it was really interesting because it’s something we don’t recognize at all in the moment… maybe only in hindsight (and you know what they say — hindsight is 20/20 👀).
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that just knowing this concept makes me feel a little more aware and in control of my daily situations and processes.
So… what is the Region Beta Paradox?
It basically says: people are better off being in a worse situation than just a mildly uncomfortable one 🤔.
Why? Because when we’re in a worse situation, it forces us to take big action 🚀. When we’re just mildly uncomfortable, we often stay stagnant and complacent 😴.
Example time 📍:
Let’s say we have someone named Jonah. Jonah’s going to the coffee shop ☕. He tells himself:
If it’s only a mile away, I’ll walk. 🚶
If it’s more than a mile away, I’ll bike. 🚲
If the coffee shop is two miles away, Jonah bikes — and he actually gets there faster than he would walking just one mile.
The parallel? When the situation is worse (further away), he takes greater action… and ends up making his life easier than it was in the “easier” situation.
Not clicking?
Here are some more examples:
You’re walking with a tiny rock in your shoe 👟 — you keep going, thinking “it’s fine.” But if your shoe rips? You stop and fix it immediately.
Your faucet has a slow drip 💧 — you tell yourself you’ll fix it “someday” (side note: that would drive me absolutely insane, I’d fix it instantly 😂). But if your faucet bursts and water is everywhere? You’re on the phone with a plumber right now.
A friendship that’s comfortable but surface-level — it’s “fine,” so you never push for depth or invest much energy. But maybe if it weren’t fine, you’d step away and invest in more fulfilling connections ❤️.
A relationship that’s okay but not great — you stay because nothing’s horribly wrong. If it went terribly wrong, you’d leave faster and free up space for something better.
At work, outdated processes that “sort of work” stay untouched until a big crisis finally forces change 💼.
So what’s the point?
I think it’s about identifying complacency vs. urgency 🎯.
When something is tolerable, it lives in the “it’s fine” zone. You convince yourself that change can wait. But why does change have to wait?
Sometimes it takes a little urgency — even discomfort — to push you to act. And here’s the kicker: in those urgent situations, we often discover we’re capable of more than we thought.
I’ve said this before: growth happens in discomfort 💥. The Region Beta Paradox is another way to look at that.
Sure, there are pros to staying in the tolerable zone — less stress, less upheaval — but maybe those “fine” zones are warning flags 🚩 for opportunities to grow.
And yeah, I get it — if we tried to “Region Beta” every situation, we’d be constantly fixing and changing things in our lives 😅. But I think this is where self-awareness comes in.
Here’s a simple reflection tool:
If this situation got 25% worse, what would I do differently? 🤔
It forces proactive thinking. And once you have clarity on what you’d do… You might just realize you want to do it now. And, I think the more we can actively do this, the better we become at reading our situations, reading ourselves, and knowing where we want to take action, and not want to take action. Knowing where we NEED change, and knowing where we don’t. Knowing what we want, vs what we’ll just tolerate. The biggest pro that can come out of this is, yes, your ability to take action, but most importantly, your ability to better MAKE that call.
Why it’s called “Region Beta”
The model shows three zones:
Region Alpha = comfort 😌
Region Beta = discomfort → growth 🚀
Region Gamma = too far → crash 💥
The biggest gains come from Region Beta — the place we usually avoid…well truly, the place we don’t even know exists. In comfort (Alpha), we stagnate. In crisis beyond repair (Gamma), we break. But in that middle discomfort? We grow, optimize, and move forward faster.
So no, I’m not saying go around optimizing everything in your life for Region Beta. But in reflection, ask yourself: If this got 25% worse, what would I change?
You might like your own answer enough to take action now.
Interesting concept, right? 🤓 Curious to hear your thoughts.
See you all in two weeks— ciao for now 👋.
Rosh
PGY-1 Resident
☕️ Weekly Coffee Count: 22 cups of coffee this past week.