Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What I’ve learned from users

paulgraham.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–339 of 339 posts

Re: What I’ve learned from users

#331

Post by fuckstick »

caminante wrote: post #326
fuckstick wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t necessarily think of that as an oddity though. There’s a lot of stigma associated with dropping out of something like medicine combined with very few people out of medicine knowing any details of the training and licensure process. That said, the overwhelming likely scenario is either quitting or getting kicked out and using the “board” failure as a cover (colloquially doctors hardly ever call them boards in…

Wayyy off topic, but here are some thoughts. > There’s a lot of stigma associated with dropping out of something like medicine... Sure, there's external stigma, but IMO, the larger driver for stigma is self-imposed. Med school enrollees are filled with "most likely to exceed" personalities who are harder on themselves and catastrophize a minor setback v. peers as "the end of the world." > (colloquially doctors hardly…

> catastrophize a minor setback v. peers as "the end of the world."

The counterpoint to this is that most medical trainees endure a tremendous number or setbacks during training that they must overcome. If anything residency teaches it is grit. I would say trainees generally tend to evolve in this respect from premed undergrads and 1st/2nd year med students who are relatively insufferable throughout the rest of training where there is necessarily a personality shift.

> Anecdotally, I've only heard friends in medicine (US) refer to them (the USMLE exam[0] and steps) as "boards,"

Yes, probably when talking to non doctors to keep it simple. But everyone inside usually just says specifically Step 1, Step 2 etc or USMLE.

> Those are usually singular because you only need one

No. If you subspecialize - you will board in two or more things. For instance an interventional cardiologist will be boarded in internal medicine, general cardiology and interventional cardiology each with their own training requirements and exams.

> sometimes they're oral, like a thesis defense where you get grilled on a schedule of of your cases over the past couple years.

The vast majority of even the oral exams are standardized tests with standardized cases. I can only think of OBGYN that does the case review.

Re: What I’ve learned from users

#332

Post by phpthrowaway99 »

phpthrowaway99 wrote: post #144
tenpies wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in the future hope to buy a Tesla in large part to avoid that experience And see Tesla knows this, which is why the margin on their cars is higher than most. You may have disliked that sales experience with a dealer or used car salesperson, but it quite likely got you a slightly better deal than had you tried to negotiate yourself.

If you buy a Toyota following the Tesla model, where you call and say "I'd like to buy the car you have, for the price you have listed", you will also have a generally good experience.

Toyota was just my random example. Point being, if you offer to pay the asking price, it's pretty painless at most places just like at Tesla.

Re: What I’ve learned from users

#333

Post by melagonster »

q-big wrote: post #316
GrinningFool wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> since dating is about manipulating the other side to love one. Sounds like you're doing it wrong.

> Sounds like you're doing it wrong. Then I have to conclude that a lot of dating advice that one finds is plainly wrong: "show off your best side" is for example an instance of "manipulate the other person to believe that you are of higher value than you actually are (and thus a relationship with you is a better deal than it actually is)".

you just need to keep this until Death coming.

Re: What I’ve learned from users

#334

Post by egberts1 »

when I buy a car, I expect the least amount of infrastructure of entanglement.

That means none of the followings:

- an internet “KILL ENGINE” server

- an advertiser stream

- a collection server of receivers of dubious trustworthiness

- a tracker that reports to strange entities

Looking at you, Tesla.

Re: What I’ve learned from users

#335

Post by GrinningFool »

q-big wrote: post #316
GrinningFool wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> since dating is about manipulating the other side to love one. Sounds like you're doing it wrong.

> Sounds like you're doing it wrong. Then I have to conclude that a lot of dating advice that one finds is plainly wrong: "show off your best side" is for example an instance of "manipulate the other person to believe that you are of higher value than you actually are (and thus a relationship with you is a better deal than it actually is)".

I'd agree that it's wrong. If the person you're dating isn't comfortable with you being yourself, then it's probably the wrong person. Presenting a fake impression of yourself to convince them to stick around seems like a poor foundation for a relationship.

Re: What I’ve learned from users

#336

Post by skue »

phpthrowaway99 wrote: post #131
sgustard wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I learned about the industry is that dealership salespeople are hired from the same pool as, say, McDonalds employees. These are not college graduates who have white-collar job offers. They join with no existing skills at low wage. Turnover is massive, the average sales agent leaves within a year. Meanwhile, the whole industry is pushing hard to adopt Tesla's model of fixed pricing and replacing people with…

I went to a top US university in a stem degree. My coworker was a med student that couldn't pass the Mcats, but wasn't a bozo. Basically everyone had a degree, and everyone made atleast $100k. I personally made about $225k but as I said, I was pretty good. I know a person in Bay area car sales making $300k+. I assume there are many others. I assume you agree a McDonald's employee is not going to close accountants and…

> My coworker was a med student that couldn't pass the Mcats

That’s not a thing. The MCAT is used for admission into med school (equivalent to the LSAT or GRE).

Re: What I’ve learned from users

#337

Post by btbuildem »

sleepdreamy wrote: post #320
btbuildem wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've only ever bought used cars, from individuals. Paying extra for the overhead of a dealership and some salesperson's bonus seems absurd to me. You're pretty much guaranteed to get taken advantage of by a professional. Local classifieds, private sellers, take the car to a trusted mechanic for an inspection.

How does that work? You write a stranger a 30,000 check? I don't see how this is preferable if you are purchasing nice/new or high end vehicles.

Personally I've never paid more than $7000 for a car.. but yeah, a cheque, or a transfer. You transfer the ownership at the govt office, and it's done.

Dropping 30k on a car seems a little nuts to me, but I understand different people have different values.

Re: What I’ve learned from users

#338

Post by caminante »

fuckstick wrote: post #331
caminante wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wayyy off topic, but here are some thoughts. > There’s a lot of stigma associated with dropping out of something like medicine... Sure, there's external stigma, but IMO, the larger driver for stigma is self-imposed. Med school enrollees are filled with "most likely to exceed" personalities who are harder on themselves and catastrophize a minor setback v. peers as "the end of the world." > (colloquially doctors hardly…

> catastrophize a minor setback v. peers as "the end of the world." The counterpoint to this is that most medical trainees endure a tremendous number or setbacks during training that they must overcome. If anything residency teaches it is grit. I would say trainees generally tend to evolve in this respect from premed undergrads and 1st/2nd year med students who are relatively insufferable throughout the rest of train…

Again, I'm not qualified to get at the nuance so I defer to you if you're in the industry.

> No. If you subspecialize

Sure. I agree that you need a singular board for a terminal specialty and potentially interstitial boards along the way.

> Yes, probably when talking to non doctors to keep it simple. But everyone inside usually just says specifically Step 1, Step 2 etc or USMLE.

Again, I'm not in the field, but see a lot of references on the web using "boards" language. From a quick google search "USMLE called steps or boards", I get a test prep site [0]. I'm assuming this is a matter of "precise v. common" usage.

> The United States Medical Licensure Exam (USMLE) Step 1, commonly called “the Boards,” is a standardized test

[0] https://www.boardvitals.com/blog/9-things-to-know-before-tak....

Re: What I’ve learned from users

#339

Post by JoshuaDavid »

hansvm wrote: post #262
acchow wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhhh....they don't add on unnecessary charges? Like a paint coating you didn't ask for?

I had one try to add $3k for invisible (UV) paint the police could use to prosecute the thieves if my car were dismantled. All the extra fees turned a $4500 car, listed at $8500 at that dealership, into $19500. The "fixed price" just meant they were completely and utterly unwilling to negotiate on that sort of insanity, so some dealership down the road got my business instead. $5k later, the same car has had no issue…

Because making a $15,000 profit 5% of the time and nothing 95% of the time is better than making a $500 profit every time.

Basically if scamming your customers works a nontrivial fraction of the time and the margin when you're not scamming is small, scamming is the incentivized behavior.

Post reply on HN