Brain Post: If You Had to Cut Off One Finger, Which One Should You Cut Off?

Miles Clark
which one...
which one...
which one…

One of my best friends and neighbors growing up is now an orthopedic surgeon. ย He loves to show me photos of his surgeries that he has on his iPhone. ย Yep, the pictures are gnarly.

He does a lot of hand surgeries. ย He’s a ninja and can put hands back together that look like ground beef. ย He also sometimes has to make it up putting hands back together in the only plausible way.

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One day, when showing me some graphic images of a blown-up hand from a 4th of July firecracker, he said to me:

“Miles, if you had to cut off one finger, which finger would you cut off?”

I obviously answered the pinky finger and he said:

“Wrong!”

He then explained to me how important the pinky and ring fingers are to human grip. ย If you’re missing one of these fingers, your grip strength will be gone. ย You won’t be able to hang nor hold on tight to anything.

The Thing from the Addams Family would find this very interesting
The Thing from the Addams Family would find this very interesting

You want to cut off your middle or pointer finger. ย Seems wrong, right? ย But he went on to explain that anything you can do with your pointer finger, you can do with your middle finger.

If you ever end up in someย medievalย situation where you have to select which of your fingers gets cutย off, remember to go for the middle or pointer. ย You’re welcome.

CEO & Founder of SnowBrains, UC Berkeley graduate - molecular cell biology major, professional freeskier, professional mountain guide, Alaska heli-ski guide. Skiing, surfing, guiding, travel, reading, writing, language, Ella Fitzgerald.
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