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> I find medicine to be as interesting as mathematics while the workload being significantly lower Dude, there’s something wrong either with your schools, or w

> I find medicine to be as interesting as mathematics while the workload being significantly lower Dude, there’s something wrong either with your schools, or with your perception of reality. In any case, life is not a picnic, there’s nothing unusual in constantly putting extra effort to achieve something worthwhile.

JohnHaugeland 5y ago
> Dude, there’s something wrong either with your schools, or with your perception of reality. Talk to some doctors. Ask what their workload is like. It turns out that software engineers are worked way, way harder.
- alex_c 5y ago
  In school?
  - math_denial 5y ago
    Maybe in the US is different but where I am the self reported preparation times for medical exams are lower than that of a Physics/Math/Engineering exam: if I recall correctly Physics was at the top, then Math, then various Engineering disciplines (but not all, maybe CE was an exception), then Medicine. Edit: Obviously things change in the actual job.
- avemuri 5y ago
  This is just not true for at least the first 15 years of a doctor's career. Source: Worked with multiple surgeons all over the country.
  - JohnHaugeland 5y ago
    Sorry, I'm going to believe the BLS over one random person on hn
  - gorbachev 5y ago
    Surgeons are not typical doctors. That's not a valid comparisons.
- hahamrfunnyguy 5y ago
  Certainly not true in the US. Medical professionals often work double shifts and put in lots of hours. Being on call or working weekends is mandatory in many cases. Beyond that, the work environment is much more stressful, especially now. The patients' lives are in your hands, and on top of that you have to deal with being assaulted (yelled at, spit on, hit, etc) or making a mistake and being sued. Having worked as a software engineer/developer, I can at that sometimes the work can be challenging but overall the job itself has been pretty easy and low-stress in comparison. During the first half of my career, I put in a lot of extra hours but then I realized it wasn't going to help me get a raise or get promoted so I stopped doing that and stuck mostly to the 40 hour work week which I was being paid for.
- aristofun 5y ago
  I don't undermine the stress of a software engineer (althouth 95% of them out there are doing quite simple and boring stuff on a daily basis, if you ask me). But the nature of the medicine is incomparably harder and more complex than the nature of CS discipline (which is an artificial human-made construct, however sophisticated). It only means that if someone puts less time/effort in studying more complicated thing, this someone is much worse in it than in less complicated matter.
tizzy 5y ago
Agreed. This quote stuck out to me. You either have a natural aptitude for medicine or you think the grass is greener on the other side. Maybe Dunning-Kruger effect. In any case, devote some time to the hard stuff. It will pay off.
- rwanda 5y ago
  OP here. To be clear, I'm referring to studying in school and not career-work. In my country it would be very non-controversial to say that the program I'm currently in is significantly harder and more time-consuming than medicine. I think this is due in part to the fact that medicine is 6 years here, as opposed to 4 years in some countries. Average workload for a medical student is around 40h/week including lectures with only P/F grading, while at my program it's around 52h/week on average and my guess is around 60h/week for good grades. Every one of my classmates who has a good GPA puts in 60h+/week.
  - aristofun 5y ago
    Then the medical school you refer to is probably not worth it (I would never choose to visit a doctor, who didn't study harder than a programmer). Being born in eastern europe myself I know of plenty of shitty schools, both medical and engineering.
    - rwanda 5y ago
      I mean it ranks very well and the school itself has some very good research output. I need to reiterate, it's a 6 year degree and not 4 years. The workload is about the same for all medical schools in my country. I think the workload is similar to a CS degree at some good university but that's mostly speculation on my part.

JohnHaugeland 5y ago

> Dude, there’s something wrong either with your schools, or with your perception of reality. Talk to some doctors. Ask what their workload is like. It turns out that software engineers are worked way, way harder.

alex_c 5y ago
In school?
- math_denial 5y ago
  Maybe in the US is different but where I am the self reported preparation times for medical exams are lower than that of a Physics/Math/Engineering exam: if I recall correctly Physics was at the top, then Math, then various Engineering disciplines (but not all, maybe CE was an exception), then Medicine. Edit: Obviously things change in the actual job.
avemuri 5y ago
This is just not true for at least the first 15 years of a doctor's career. Source: Worked with multiple surgeons all over the country.
- JohnHaugeland 5y ago
  Sorry, I'm going to believe the BLS over one random person on hn
- gorbachev 5y ago
  Surgeons are not typical doctors. That's not a valid comparisons.
hahamrfunnyguy 5y ago
Certainly not true in the US. Medical professionals often work double shifts and put in lots of hours. Being on call or working weekends is mandatory in many cases. Beyond that, the work environment is much more stressful, especially now. The patients' lives are in your hands, and on top of that you have to deal with being assaulted (yelled at, spit on, hit, etc) or making a mistake and being sued. Having worked as a software engineer/developer, I can at that sometimes the work can be challenging but overall the job itself has been pretty easy and low-stress in comparison. During the first half of my career, I put in a lot of extra hours but then I realized it wasn't going to help me get a raise or get promoted so I stopped doing that and stuck mostly to the 40 hour work week which I was being paid for.
aristofun 5y ago
I don't undermine the stress of a software engineer (althouth 95% of them out there are doing quite simple and boring stuff on a daily basis, if you ask me). But the nature of the medicine is incomparably harder and more complex than the nature of CS discipline (which is an artificial human-made construct, however sophisticated). It only means that if someone puts less time/effort in studying more complicated thing, this someone is much worse in it than in less complicated matter.

tizzy 5y ago

Agreed. This quote stuck out to me. You either have a natural aptitude for medicine or you think the grass is greener on the other side. Maybe Dunning-Kruger effect. In any case, devote some time to the hard stuff. It will pay off.

rwanda 5y ago
OP here. To be clear, I'm referring to studying in school and not career-work. In my country it would be very non-controversial to say that the program I'm currently in is significantly harder and more time-consuming than medicine. I think this is due in part to the fact that medicine is 6 years here, as opposed to 4 years in some countries. Average workload for a medical student is around 40h/week including lectures with only P/F grading, while at my program it's around 52h/week on average and my guess is around 60h/week for good grades. Every one of my classmates who has a good GPA puts in 60h+/week.
- aristofun 5y ago
  Then the medical school you refer to is probably not worth it (I would never choose to visit a doctor, who didn't study harder than a programmer). Being born in eastern europe myself I know of plenty of shitty schools, both medical and engineering.
  - rwanda 5y ago
    I mean it ranks very well and the school itself has some very good research output. I need to reiterate, it's a 6 year degree and not 4 years. The workload is about the same for all medical schools in my country. I think the workload is similar to a CS degree at some good university but that's mostly speculation on my part.