Looking into the eyes of this female leader of the Korowai tribe who are still considered to be cannibals, one may think there will be a more vivid experience during our life but the state of shock is still holding us hard! Read more…
Surprisingly, the fact is that there are 14 years between these books. Exactly as much as, according to Leo Tolstoy's inner feeling, is one cycle of human maturation. He had an almost intimate idea of the periodization of life — conditional segments in which every fourteen years a person reaches a new level of understanding.
If we put aside excessive modesty (for a short time and strictly for scientific purposes), and try this logic on ourselves, we get a curious picture. The first book is a level of observation. The second is the level of understanding. And there are those fourteen years between them.
As a person who has suddenly discovered a Tolstoyan in himself, I am especially pleased with this coincidence. Tolstoy's early period is form, observation, description; his mature period is meaning, foundations, and philosophy. Everything is almost mirrored for me: the first book is about morphology (about what is visible), the second is about phenotypes (about what it means). It's even kind of awkward from such symmetry, but it's hard to argue with the facts.
If we continue this logic, the next book should inevitably be no longer about what we see or even what we understand, but about what to do about it. That is, about management and prediction.
And then it will no longer be just books, but a consistent ontology of a new type of dermatology, in which the stages are clearly traced.:
1 . Dermatovenerology
→ Observation
→ morphology
→ language of the symptom
2 . Phenotypic dermatology
→ discrimination
→ cell
→ language of explanation
3️⃣ Next level
→ Management
→ forecast
→ Solution language
The seemingly simple task remains — to name the third book. But this is where the fun begins.
Because this is no longer just about the name, but about the formulation of the next stage of work, which, if we are to be consistent, will also take about 14 years. This means that the name should include everything: modeling of skin conditions, prognosis of the course, management of phenotypes, and decision-making algorithms. The first thing you ask for is "Modeling in dermatology." Too easy? Maybe. Not bold enough? It's also possible.
And here comes a thought that, admittedly, is a bit disciplining – by choosing a name, I am essentially choosing what the next stage of my scientific life will be called... fourteen years long. Hello, Lev Nikolaevich....
