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I wonder if I'm the only kid who expressly did not do what their parents did in this thread. Of course I also sit in a cluster, knowing several other kids who

I wonder if I'm the only kid who expressly did not do what their parents did in this thread. Of course I also sit in a cluster, knowing several other kids who also did not want to become restaurant workers. It was simple really, our parents would say "I'm serving fried rice to people so that you won't have to." None of my family friends have taken over the family business. It's nearly an insult to suggest it, I remember seeing an article about my friend's dad having his anniversary at one of Copenhagens most beloved Chinese grillbars. The FB comment section made it clear she had no intention of taking that over, his hard work had resulted in a cushy white collar job for her and she was thankful for that. Oddly my wife, a doctor's kid, also got put off being a doctor by her dad. He had long become cynical about working in the NHS and let his kids know when they got to the age where you think about this.

tomc1985 5y ago
My dad was a telecom salesman, I became a software engineer. I do remember seeing big stacks of dBase binders in his closet, and he taught me how to use a command line, but a developer he was not.
joatmon-snoo 5y ago
Re this thread specifically, I suspect medicine is viewed differently in the US than in the UK. There's certainly an impression, imo, of the profession in the US that's derived from the upper percentiles of the earning potential here; I've heard (but am not sure) that the range is less extreme in countries with superior healthcare systems.
- lordnacho 5y ago
  Yeah, I happen to have relatives who are doctors in the US. I think they get paid more than my father-in-law did, but they talk about malpractice insurance taking up a lot of that income, so I'm not sure how it nets out.
KMag 5y ago
> I wonder if I'm the only kid who expressly did not do what their parents did in this thread. My father and my father's father were both anesthesiologists. I'm a software developer with a degree in mechanical engineering. Growing up, I saw a lot of my dad's frustration butting his head against hospital and regulatory bureaucracy and decided to steer clear. (His biggest headaches came because it's not uncommon for one anesthesiologist to cover 3 simultaneous low-risk operations, circulating among the operating rooms while each surgery has a dedicated nurse anesthetist. There was one billing regulation that was ambiguous in a corner case for such simultaneous services, where one reading indicated that they weren't allowed to charge any fees at all in a corner case. His company inquired for clarification from the government regulator and got no response. Years after their inquiry, they got sued regarding corner-case billing of the government for services provided to low income patients. The legal discovery process found internal government memos where regulators joked with each other over my dad's company's inquiry about how it would be great to have zero-cost healthcare at the expense of physicians. The laws were later clarified to avoid the ambiguity to essentially match my dad's company's interpretation, but unfortunately, the lawsuit was over the laws at the time the billing was made. They were actually sued by a third party on behalf of the government, in exchange for a percentage of the money recovered for the government. Some of the key pieces of evidence were shown pre-trial to be "mistakes" where the other side had "accidentally" photocopied several bills twice and redacted the two copies of each bill slightly differently. There were some "anonymous whistleblower" faxes that were traced to an office service center across the street from the other party's offices (conveniently preventing the whistleblower from having to answer questions under oath), and all kinds of other obvious dishonest evidence submission. Most of the complaints were thrown out pre-trial, the rest they settled out of court rather than risk a jury trial pitting "rich doctors" against a government program for low income folks, over ambiguous wording. There were also anti-trust allegations made by defining a market as the area right around the hospital's where dad's company operated and conveniently ignoring some hospitals in-between those included hospitals. At least the anti-trust stuff was dropped pretty quickly, but the whole ordeal was a high-stress multi-year situation for my dad when I was in elementary school.)
- bsanr2 5y ago
  >rather than risk a jury trial pitting "rich doctors" against a government program for low income folks, over ambiguous wording. Well, were they following the standard of American healthcare in price-gouging patients because it was technically legal to do so? Which would not necessarily be a strike against your dad, but simply an acknowledgement of the way health care costs are "managed" in this country.

tomc1985 5y ago

My dad was a telecom salesman, I became a software engineer. I do remember seeing big stacks of dBase binders in his closet, and he taught me how to use a command line, but a developer he was not.

joatmon-snoo 5y ago

Re this thread specifically, I suspect medicine is viewed differently in the US than in the UK. There's certainly an impression, imo, of the profession in the US that's derived from the upper percentiles of the earning potential here; I've heard (but am not sure) that the range is less extreme in countries with superior healthcare systems.

lordnacho 5y ago
Yeah, I happen to have relatives who are doctors in the US. I think they get paid more than my father-in-law did, but they talk about malpractice insurance taking up a lot of that income, so I'm not sure how it nets out.

KMag 5y ago

> I wonder if I'm the only kid who expressly did not do what their parents did in this thread. My father and my father's father were both anesthesiologists. I'm a software developer with a degree in mechanical engineering. Growing up, I saw a lot of my dad's frustration butting his head against hospital and regulatory bureaucracy and decided to steer clear. (His biggest headaches came because it's not uncommon for one anesthesiologist to cover 3 simultaneous low-risk operations, circulating among the operating rooms while each surgery has a dedicated nurse anesthetist. There was one billing regulation that was ambiguous in a corner case for such simultaneous services, where one reading indicated that they weren't allowed to charge any fees at all in a corner case. His company inquired for clarification from the government regulator and got no response. Years after their inquiry, they got sued regarding corner-case billing of the government for services provided to low income patients. The legal discovery process found internal government memos where regulators joked with each other over my dad's company's inquiry about how it would be great to have zero-cost healthcare at the expense of physicians. The laws were later clarified to avoid the ambiguity to essentially match my dad's company's interpretation, but unfortunately, the lawsuit was over the laws at the time the billing was made. They were actually sued by a third party on behalf of the government, in exchange for a percentage of the money recovered for the government. Some of the key pieces of evidence were shown pre-trial to be "mistakes" where the other side had "accidentally" photocopied several bills twice and redacted the two copies of each bill slightly differently. There were some "anonymous whistleblower" faxes that were traced to an office service center across the street from the other party's offices (conveniently preventing the whistleblower from having to answer questions under oath), and all kinds of other obvious dishonest evidence submission. Most of the complaints were thrown out pre-trial, the rest they settled out of court rather than risk a jury trial pitting "rich doctors" against a government program for low income folks, over ambiguous wording. There were also anti-trust allegations made by defining a market as the area right around the hospital's where dad's company operated and conveniently ignoring some hospitals in-between those included hospitals. At least the anti-trust stuff was dropped pretty quickly, but the whole ordeal was a high-stress multi-year situation for my dad when I was in elementary school.)

bsanr2 5y ago
>rather than risk a jury trial pitting "rich doctors" against a government program for low income folks, over ambiguous wording. Well, were they following the standard of American healthcare in price-gouging patients because it was technically legal to do so? Which would not necessarily be a strike against your dad, but simply an acknowledgement of the way health care costs are "managed" in this country.