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Why you should not go to medical school

blogs.law.harvard.edu

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Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#41

Post by carbocation »

So I owe HN a blog post. Here is something of a stopgap.

I am (still) a medical student at Johns Hopkins, and I love the place very much. I have for the past 6+ years.

After my third year, essentially on a whim (my sponsor, I think, knows this) I pursued a research fellowship in cardiovascular genetics. I loved it a lot, and stayed on a second year (spontaneously; thank you, Stanley and Lola J. Sarnoff).

After my fifth year in medical school, my second year of CV genetics up at MGH and the Broad Institute, I got the opportunity to pursue the startup dream for a year. I'm midway through and absolutely loving it.

But yet, I miss medicine. And I think that the grass is always greener, so I think I will miss whatever I'm not doing. Next year, in medical school for the first time in three years, I will miss research. Or I will miss the startup life. Something. I know it, because right now, I miss the hospital.

I miss working 80 hours a week while paying $50,000 a year for the privilege. I miss having a best answer (and if you think there are better answers in software than there are in medicine, please email me so I can hire you).

But I know that soon, I will miss the freedom of working at a startup. There is no right answer for everyone. And for many of us who were drawn to medicine, I think there can be no possible right answer, ever.

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#42

Post by grey666 »

We all hate people. It's because people have no common sense anymore. People don't respect the Earth anymore. It's all about greed... and greed is and has always been the seed of all Evil. Combine greed with a constant influx of media and interruption, you get zombies.

It's never going to change. We are left here on this lonely planet to our own devices - we were warned about greed, but greed has in fact taken over.

The 90's saw the most productive and the most lucrative period in the history of mankind. We take it for granted. The truth is - to live in the USA during the 90's was the pinnacle of human civilization and it will never be that way again. It was unsustainable.

We are in a death spiral, there will be casualties. Those that cannot adapt will be sacrificed. Gasoline has been replaced by the Internet and global marketing. Gasoline is obsolete.

Gasoline is obsolete. Because it's cheaper to hire foreign workers via the Internet than it is to make cubicles in the USA.

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#43

Post by grey666 »

We all hate people. It's because people have no common sense anymore. People don't respect the Earth anymore. It's all about greed... and greed is and has always been the seed of all Evil. Combine greed with a constant influx of media and interruption, you get zombies.

It's never going to change. We are left here on this lonely planet to our own devices - we were warned about greed, but greed has in fact taken over.

The 90's saw the most productive and the most lucrative period in the history of mankind. We take it for granted. The truth is - to live in the USA during the 90's was the pinnacle of human civilization and it will never be that way again. It was unsustainable.

We are in a death spiral, there will be casualties. Those that cannot adapt will be sacrificed. Gasoline has been replaced by the Internet and global marketing. Gasoline is obsolete.

Gasoline is obsolete. Because it's cheaper to hire foreign workers via the Internet than it is to make cubicles in the USA.

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#44

Post by skrebbel »

tsotha wrote: post #39
skrebbel wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article lists $45,000 per year for doctors. Programmer polls on HN showed that $100,000 is little. What am I missing? :-)

$45/year for residents. At that point you're still basically an apprentice doctor.

Right. Turns out I completely misunderstood every sentence that contains "resident" in that article, then :-)

Thanks for pointing it all out. Does make his argument about the bad money bogus though. Nearly every other job is worse money than being a doctor (which is why he compared to investment bankers and the likes)

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#45

Post by mootothemax »

skrebbel wrote: post #44
tsotha wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$45/year for residents. At that point you're still basically an apprentice doctor.

Right. Turns out I completely misunderstood every sentence that contains "resident" in that article, then :-) Thanks for pointing it all out. Does make his argument about the bad money bogus though. Nearly every other job is worse money than being a doctor (which is why he compared to investment bankers and the likes)

Does make his argument about the bad money bogus though. Nearly every other job is worse money than being a doctor

If you worked those other jobs for 80 hours a week, I think you'd start catching up pretty quickly ;-)

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#46

Post by [deleted] »

carbocation wrote: post #41

So I owe HN a blog post. Here is something of a stopgap. I am (still) a medical student at Johns Hopkins, and I love the place very much. I have for the past 6+ years. After my third year, essentially on a whim (my sponsor, I think, knows this) I pursued a research fellowship in cardiovascular genetics. I loved it a lot, and stayed on a second year (spontaneously; thank you, Stanley and Lola J. Sarnoff). After my fif…

[deleted]

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#48

Post by roentgen »

arn wrote: post #4

So, surprisingly, this rant is more or less accurate, imo. (I went to med school, residency, fellowship) I mean some things stronger than others, but it hits on the major negatives as you go through training. I know a lot of these rants tend to romanticize how hard people's own professions are in a "no one else has it this hard" type stance. We see similar "how hard it is to be a programmer" type rants as well. But,…

I had a different experience. Medical school was easy, I was single and went out drinking / partying two or three nights a week. Not to be crass, but I did well with the ladies. Luckily I can get by on four hours of sleep or less. So, I don't feel like I missed out on much of the early twenties experience. Most of my non-medical friends had jobs and I didn't, but that was the only real difference.

Things got a little more serious my intern year, but I still managed to go out twice a week, and the nurses were much more responsive to my advances now that I was doctor.

At the start of my residency I got serious with a girl from my medical school. Her training was in Psychiatry and I was in Radiology. We worked a minimum of 80 hours a week, but we always had time for each other. We got married during third year.

Now I'm a partner in a successful practice, and she's taking a few years off to raise the kids. I make over 800k a year, and take 14 weeks of vacation. I don't deal with patients. I have the ultimate job security. And, I am a tremendous resource for my family. I'm sure you know how easy it is to get screwed by the medical system. That won't happen to me or mine.

I'm not a risk taker, so what else could I be doing with the security and benefits of my current job? Lawyer, maybe.

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#49

Post by ofca »

They should be treated as Flight controllors. My friend is one and ,it being a high-risk job like being a doctor, they have 8hr workdays with 2 hours of working and 2 hours of resting, and their salaries are sky-high. So sad all those smart,kind and hard-working people are being so used.

(plus, so glad I didn't end up in med school, I almost did :)

Re: Why you should not go to medical school

#50

Post by mrrres »

Married to a final year surgery resident and unfortunately this article rings very true. I'm not sure if the profession changed at some point, but if we were advising my kid now on future professions, doctor would not be on that list. I remember the idealism that my wife went into the profession with and that is completely gone now. I find that very sad.
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