It was fun feeding the magpies and the pied butcherbirds for a time. 

I’d put the mince in a bird feeding tray I had made up, and they would all flock in. 

I could watch them swoop in from down the paddock, birds gliding towards the easy pickings from all directions. 

At first they were all polite. 

And then...... 

Familiarity breeds contempt and they started to squabble. 

At the end of the winter feed gap, I stopped feeding the birds as their natural food source became more readily available. 

I don’t want the magpies to be dependant on the easy pickings. 

In healthcare politics, easy pickings leads people, not to the mince, but to the money. 

After all, hospitals are often a region’s largest employer. 

At first new recruits to the industry are in awe of what clinicians do. 

But as the court politics settles in their brains, they start to think that clinicians don’t do enough, that they should be better, be able to give more.

Relying on easy pickings makes the brain lazy. 

“This and only this” is a fixation error, a thinking error in potential solution finding. 

Desperation does not alter reality. 

In those times it is prudent to remember that there is only so much a clinician can give, and hounding the mince-giver will do you no good. 

Pete!