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Thanks. I'm specifically not concerned about money (other than tuition if it comes to that). Not that it is unimportant, but I won't bring any to my grave. As

by tpfour 7y ago

Thanks. I'm specifically not concerned about money (other than tuition if it comes to that). Not that it is unimportant, but I won't bring any to my grave. As I've gotten to do business, negotiations, and dealing with "money" more, I became kind of disillusioned to the power game. It's not always as fun as commonly portrayed and medicine seems like a very demanding but cool job. Maybe the grass is just greener and it gets as boring (if not more due to the lower potential for creativity).

projektfu 7y ago
The reason why I switched from SW development to veterinary medicine (looking back on it) is because I do much better with a service-oriented role instead of a project-oriented one. If I finish my notes I can put everything to bed each day and not have to worry about deadlines or doing parts of a project incrementally so I'm not swamped at the end. It's nice to help people but if I was more interested in projects, veterinary medicine would be a bad way to do it.
- tpfour 7y ago
  That's a very interesting perspective, thank you!
- bookofjoe 7y ago
  Yes! I was a GP/family doctor for a while before going back into training to become an anesthesiologist. The reason I liked anesthesiology so much and hated GP/family medicine is because each case in the OR was self-contained: once I woke the patient up, I had succeeded. GP/family medicine, on the other hand, consisted of seeing the same people over and over who never got much better or worse but rather required maintenance that would go on forever. I loved leaving the hospital each day not having to wonder if I'd done enough or the right thing or missed a diagnosis.
bagacrap 7y ago
The usefulness of money is that it gives you more free time between now and death. And yes, tuition is a killer. So is lost earning potential as you go through school instead of working. As for creativity and mental exercise, I think law is way closer to engineering than medicine, which imho is one of the professions that's going to be automated away sooner rather than later. The job of a doctor is at least partly to memorize a bunch of rules that take symptoms as input and return a diagnosis. Why is that not a python script?
- andrepd 7y ago
  >Law is way closer to engineering than medicine, which imho is one of the professions that's going to be automated away sooner rather than late >The job of a doctor is at least partly to memorize a bunch of rules that take symptoms as input and return a diagnosis. Why is that not a python script? "X is just a system! Why is this not automated?" is a common engineer mindset :) Unfortunately, X is just a system is only a good approximation if you don't actually understand much about what's going on. When you actually zoom in on the problem, the rough edges and hidden complexity start to become apparent, and your abstraction is no longer useful. Computers are incredibly simple machines when compared to most messy real world systems, and we still have a heap of trouble dealing with them.
  - bagacrap 7y ago
    Healthcare has tons of potential to be improved by technology. There are regulatory and incumbent forces that will make it difficult and unfun to work on, but the general stance that automation can help reduce difficulty and human errors seems like a given to me. I actually have hands on experience with EMR (epic) and I can tell you their convoluted solutions only make a complex system worse. As for actual clinical care, all the experience I have is second-hand, through friends and family in the field, but the ones I've talked to have admitted that most of med school is rote learning and bemoaned how easy it is to make mistakes.
    - tpfour 7y ago
      I also have experience with something of an EMR, both from the implementation/standards side and the buying side. It is a complete and utter mess. The amount of cruft is insane, and service is very poor (nobody masters the subject, so you get the poor support). It is very tiresome.
- bookofjoe 7y ago
  >... medicine, which imho is one of the professions that's going to be automated away sooner rather than later. The job of a doctor is at least partly to memorize a bunch of rules that take symptoms as input and return a diagnosis. Why is that not a python script? That made me laugh big-time even though I can't tell a python script from a boa constrictor. Later rather than sooner would be much more accurate.
bookofjoe 7y ago
There is immense potential for creativity in ANY field — medicine, law, SWE, you name it. There are not many creative people.
- tpfour 7y ago
  Of course I am concerned with creativity on an intellectual level, not necessarily related to painting or sculpting or other arts. Curiously the MDs I work with have been relatively unanimous about this: there is a variability in cases and you do, in a way, have to be "creative", but in a very limited sense of what that means. "Creative" in your analysis. Some thought that was a boring aspect of the job, some thought that was the whole point. What kind of creativity could you demonstrate in the OR?

by tpfour 7y ago

projektfu 7y ago

The reason why I switched from SW development to veterinary medicine (looking back on it) is because I do much better with a service-oriented role instead of a project-oriented one. If I finish my notes I can put everything to bed each day and not have to worry about deadlines or doing parts of a project incrementally so I'm not swamped at the end. It's nice to help people but if I was more interested in projects, veterinary medicine would be a bad way to do it.

tpfour 7y ago
That's a very interesting perspective, thank you!
bookofjoe 7y ago
Yes! I was a GP/family doctor for a while before going back into training to become an anesthesiologist. The reason I liked anesthesiology so much and hated GP/family medicine is because each case in the OR was self-contained: once I woke the patient up, I had succeeded. GP/family medicine, on the other hand, consisted of seeing the same people over and over who never got much better or worse but rather required maintenance that would go on forever. I loved leaving the hospital each day not having to wonder if I'd done enough or the right thing or missed a diagnosis.

bagacrap 7y ago

The usefulness of money is that it gives you more free time between now and death. And yes, tuition is a killer. So is lost earning potential as you go through school instead of working. As for creativity and mental exercise, I think law is way closer to engineering than medicine, which imho is one of the professions that's going to be automated away sooner rather than later. The job of a doctor is at least partly to memorize a bunch of rules that take symptoms as input and return a diagnosis. Why is that not a python script?

andrepd 7y ago
>Law is way closer to engineering than medicine, which imho is one of the professions that's going to be automated away sooner rather than late >The job of a doctor is at least partly to memorize a bunch of rules that take symptoms as input and return a diagnosis. Why is that not a python script? "X is just a system! Why is this not automated?" is a common engineer mindset :) Unfortunately, X is just a system is only a good approximation if you don't actually understand much about what's going on. When you actually zoom in on the problem, the rough edges and hidden complexity start to become apparent, and your abstraction is no longer useful. Computers are incredibly simple machines when compared to most messy real world systems, and we still have a heap of trouble dealing with them.
- bagacrap 7y ago
  Healthcare has tons of potential to be improved by technology. There are regulatory and incumbent forces that will make it difficult and unfun to work on, but the general stance that automation can help reduce difficulty and human errors seems like a given to me. I actually have hands on experience with EMR (epic) and I can tell you their convoluted solutions only make a complex system worse. As for actual clinical care, all the experience I have is second-hand, through friends and family in the field, but the ones I've talked to have admitted that most of med school is rote learning and bemoaned how easy it is to make mistakes.
  - tpfour 7y ago
    I also have experience with something of an EMR, both from the implementation/standards side and the buying side. It is a complete and utter mess. The amount of cruft is insane, and service is very poor (nobody masters the subject, so you get the poor support). It is very tiresome.
bookofjoe 7y ago
>... medicine, which imho is one of the professions that's going to be automated away sooner rather than later. The job of a doctor is at least partly to memorize a bunch of rules that take symptoms as input and return a diagnosis. Why is that not a python script? That made me laugh big-time even though I can't tell a python script from a boa constrictor. Later rather than sooner would be much more accurate.

bookofjoe 7y ago

There is immense potential for creativity in ANY field — medicine, law, SWE, you name it. There are not many creative people.

tpfour 7y ago
Of course I am concerned with creativity on an intellectual level, not necessarily related to painting or sculpting or other arts. Curiously the MDs I work with have been relatively unanimous about this: there is a variability in cases and you do, in a way, have to be "creative", but in a very limited sense of what that means. "Creative" in your analysis. Some thought that was a boring aspect of the job, some thought that was the whole point. What kind of creativity could you demonstrate in the OR?