4 ms·

Kids are being advised by parents to get an expensive degree because when they were growing up that's how you made it. That's not how it is anymore. There's no

by mevile 10y ago

Kids are being advised by parents to get an expensive degree because when they were growing up that's how you made it. That's not how it is anymore. There's no free pass to success, no check all these boxes and then you've made it. You gotta use your brain early on, figure it out for yourself, because ultimately you're going to be the one having to live with the consequences of how you've spent your youth. I think there are actually good opportunities in vocational schools. Marketable skills that you can use to find a good job. Law, liberal arts and communication degrees maybe not as marketable.

hkmurakami 10y ago
>That's not how it is anymore. There's no free pass to success, no check all these boxes and then you've made it. You gotta use your brain early on, figure it out for yourself, because ultimately you're going to be the one having to live with the consequences of how you've spent your youth. To be fair, the other pillar of "expensive degree leading to lucrative, high prestige career", medicine, is still doing well. As the population ages, there will be an even higher need for medical professionals. Of course, part of this seems to be a result of residency programs being restricted in the number of seats available.
- davnn 10y ago
  Don't you think AI will have a big influence in the future of medicine?
  - godzillabrennus 10y ago
    Yes in diagnostics but for research social innovations will be far more impactful.
    - davnn 10y ago
      More researchers and less doctors sounds like a good plan to me!
  - gumby 10y ago
    > Don't you think AI will have a big influence in the future of medicine? People have been hoping so since the 70s and haven't made any progress. Having worked in both fields I realize that 1. Medicine as a discipline is still poorly understood so isn't really amenable to that many automated tasks and 2. Medicine, as a social phenomenon is structured such that automation won't itself reduce costs.
    - chii 10y ago
      lately, a lot of GP seems to be relying on an expert system to help diagnose/work out treatments for things. AI, as populeraized in hollywood pop culture, seems to only include things like human intelligence, where as in reality, AI encompasses things like expert systems, which is already very common.
  - brianwawok 10y ago
    Google has had a far bigger impact in medicine so far. Of course it also means I come to a doctor with 3 self diagnoses and he yells at me and tells me to stop googling.
- taxicabjesus 10y ago
  Medicine has a few impossible problems. Family practice/internal medicine is arguably one of the most important roles, but many new doctors specialize so that they can better "cash in" on their M.D. degree. It's much cheaper to be proactive than reactive, but medicine doesn't think that way. Another problem is that Medicine spends a ton of money trying to keep old people alive for a few more days. For example, my grandfather was somehow talked into have his pacemaker replaced a few months before his 101st birthday. There were complications, infections, etc, and my aunt had to fight to get him on hospice care. Replacing this pacemaker was a mean thing to do to an old man who'd spent years hoping to die in his sleep. It would have been kinder to have never given him the pacemaker in the first place. He would've passed away 10 years earlier, but those last 10 years were of little value to him. Obamacare has only made "paying the bill" for medicine even more problematic.
  - chii 10y ago
    > talked into have his pacemaker replaced i don't want to sound callice, but it seems like the "sales person" was trying to get more sales (as they are wont to do). A car sales man would talk you into replacing the car you don't need to replace because that's his job. It's up to the consumer to be clear about rejecting, and if an elderly isn't of sound mind to do so properly, their relatives should've been there to do the thinking on their behalf.
    - taxicabjesus 10y ago
      > It's up to the consumer to be clear about rejecting, and if an elderly isn't of sound mind to do so properly, their relatives should've been there to do the thinking on their behalf. My aunt was his caretaker, and she would've been there... But her 'job', for the last ... 10+ years, was caretaker for her parents, and it was easier for her emotions to allow the doctors to keep her father going. My other grandfather had his defibrillator replaced when he would have liked to have been pushing daisies. I think his reasoning was that replacing the device would hopefully keep him from being even more of a burden to his daughter/caretaker.
- rwallace 10y ago
  Is it still doing well? There are still jobs, yes, but everything I hear about the working conditions for doctors entering the field today is that their quality of life is not substantially better than that of a homeless drug addict.
sandworm101 10y ago
But there are plenty of glass ceilings that can only be breeched via formal education. If you want to be on a board of directors some day, you better either be a billionaire or have a masters or better, preferably more than one.
WalterBright 10y ago
> no check all these boxes and then you've made it. There never was such a time.

by mevile 10y ago

hkmurakami 10y ago

>That's not how it is anymore. There's no free pass to success, no check all these boxes and then you've made it. You gotta use your brain early on, figure it out for yourself, because ultimately you're going to be the one having to live with the consequences of how you've spent your youth. To be fair, the other pillar of "expensive degree leading to lucrative, high prestige career", medicine, is still doing well. As the population ages, there will be an even higher need for medical professionals. Of course, part of this seems to be a result of residency programs being restricted in the number of seats available.

davnn 10y ago
Don't you think AI will have a big influence in the future of medicine?
- godzillabrennus 10y ago
  Yes in diagnostics but for research social innovations will be far more impactful.
  - davnn 10y ago
    More researchers and less doctors sounds like a good plan to me!
- gumby 10y ago
  > Don't you think AI will have a big influence in the future of medicine? People have been hoping so since the 70s and haven't made any progress. Having worked in both fields I realize that 1. Medicine as a discipline is still poorly understood so isn't really amenable to that many automated tasks and 2. Medicine, as a social phenomenon is structured such that automation won't itself reduce costs.
  - chii 10y ago
    lately, a lot of GP seems to be relying on an expert system to help diagnose/work out treatments for things. AI, as populeraized in hollywood pop culture, seems to only include things like human intelligence, where as in reality, AI encompasses things like expert systems, which is already very common.
- brianwawok 10y ago
  Google has had a far bigger impact in medicine so far. Of course it also means I come to a doctor with 3 self diagnoses and he yells at me and tells me to stop googling.
taxicabjesus 10y ago
Medicine has a few impossible problems. Family practice/internal medicine is arguably one of the most important roles, but many new doctors specialize so that they can better "cash in" on their M.D. degree. It's much cheaper to be proactive than reactive, but medicine doesn't think that way. Another problem is that Medicine spends a ton of money trying to keep old people alive for a few more days. For example, my grandfather was somehow talked into have his pacemaker replaced a few months before his 101st birthday. There were complications, infections, etc, and my aunt had to fight to get him on hospice care. Replacing this pacemaker was a mean thing to do to an old man who'd spent years hoping to die in his sleep. It would have been kinder to have never given him the pacemaker in the first place. He would've passed away 10 years earlier, but those last 10 years were of little value to him. Obamacare has only made "paying the bill" for medicine even more problematic.
- chii 10y ago
  > talked into have his pacemaker replaced i don't want to sound callice, but it seems like the "sales person" was trying to get more sales (as they are wont to do). A car sales man would talk you into replacing the car you don't need to replace because that's his job. It's up to the consumer to be clear about rejecting, and if an elderly isn't of sound mind to do so properly, their relatives should've been there to do the thinking on their behalf.
  - taxicabjesus 10y ago
    > It's up to the consumer to be clear about rejecting, and if an elderly isn't of sound mind to do so properly, their relatives should've been there to do the thinking on their behalf. My aunt was his caretaker, and she would've been there... But her 'job', for the last ... 10+ years, was caretaker for her parents, and it was easier for her emotions to allow the doctors to keep her father going. My other grandfather had his defibrillator replaced when he would have liked to have been pushing daisies. I think his reasoning was that replacing the device would hopefully keep him from being even more of a burden to his daughter/caretaker.
rwallace 10y ago
Is it still doing well? There are still jobs, yes, but everything I hear about the working conditions for doctors entering the field today is that their quality of life is not substantially better than that of a homeless drug addict.

sandworm101 10y ago

But there are plenty of glass ceilings that can only be breeched via formal education. If you want to be on a board of directors some day, you better either be a billionaire or have a masters or better, preferably more than one.

WalterBright 10y ago

> no check all these boxes and then you've made it. There never was such a time.