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Imagine thinking you're teaching a pathologist anything about evaluating neoplastic cells.... Like even as a doctor who's not a pathologist I wouldn't dare beca

Imagine thinking you're teaching a pathologist anything about evaluating neoplastic cells.... Like even as a doctor who's not a pathologist I wouldn't dare because I know just how much I don't know compared to them. A CS grad thinking they can jump in on that is peak tech-centric hubris.

bee_rider 2y ago
We get pretty arrogant for sure, but from an outsider point of view at least this looks more like somebody pitching a perpetual motion machine to physicists, rather than typical tech-centric hubris.
petermcneeley 2y ago
Appeals to authority tend not to fly in a hacker community which is all about questioning authority and the status quo. It is usually much better to respond with logic and refutation.
- bowsamic 2y ago
  I think you’ve misjudged the culture here
  - petermcneeley 2y ago
    Well more just the specific audience. A physician is basically the inverse of a hacker.
    - bowsamic 2y ago
      Despite the name it isn’t so much a hacker culture here but rather a general intelligentsia one
    - Zenzero 2y ago
      Yes. There are regimented silos within medicine that allow hacking in ways that attempt to minimize patient harm. Attempting to circumvent them is a good way to land in court.
- Zenzero 2y ago
  I really can't tell if you're trolling at this point but in the chance you aren't, I'll bite. Appealing to the authority of a pathologist is safe in my book given the subject matter and the education of the counterparty. There is a lower bound of requisite knowledge beneath which it's not worth even trying to entertain your claims about just "find and destroy rogue cells". You can't even begin to respond with logic and refutation if you haven't achieved anything close to the level of expertise required to be certified as a pathologist. Coming in here trying to play the angle of "well just model with supercomputers" isn't the winning ticket. Contrary to stereotypes of computer-illiterate doctors, there are some wicked smart people working in medicine (I've met and befriended many) and I guarantee your genius approach was considered and abandoned decades ago.
  - killjoywashere 2y ago
    Looking through his comments, I think he's young and, as tends to go with youth, frustrated. This comment elsewhere in thread suggests he may be coming around: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40895503 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40895503
    - petermcneeley 2y ago
      I am not that young. If you go back far enough in the comments you will see that I completed my physics degree 15 years ago. I studied quite a bit of biology and I personally know multiple doctors. I am more bored than frustrated.
      - locopati 2y ago
        i truly hope you never have to experience cancer treatments for a loved one where the treatments end up not working in the end. it is humbling and eye opening.
  - petermcneeley 2y ago
    Where did I say "just model with supercomputers"? Thats the biology problem it is super hard! I am literally saying that avoiding the hard problem is going to work in the general case. I would argue that radiation therapy is in this vein.
- jghn 2y ago
  I'm assuming you realize that the cancer community has been inundated by people from other domains for decades, right? If only those cancer researchers could think of this one idea that'd solve everything. And yet, somehow it persists.
- slowmovintarget 2y ago
  Terence Howard has some platonic solids for you.

bee_rider 2y ago

We get pretty arrogant for sure, but from an outsider point of view at least this looks more like somebody pitching a perpetual motion machine to physicists, rather than typical tech-centric hubris.

petermcneeley 2y ago

Appeals to authority tend not to fly in a hacker community which is all about questioning authority and the status quo. It is usually much better to respond with logic and refutation.

bowsamic 2y ago
I think you’ve misjudged the culture here
- petermcneeley 2y ago
  Well more just the specific audience. A physician is basically the inverse of a hacker.
  - bowsamic 2y ago
    Despite the name it isn’t so much a hacker culture here but rather a general intelligentsia one
  - Zenzero 2y ago
    Yes. There are regimented silos within medicine that allow hacking in ways that attempt to minimize patient harm. Attempting to circumvent them is a good way to land in court.
Zenzero 2y ago
I really can't tell if you're trolling at this point but in the chance you aren't, I'll bite. Appealing to the authority of a pathologist is safe in my book given the subject matter and the education of the counterparty. There is a lower bound of requisite knowledge beneath which it's not worth even trying to entertain your claims about just "find and destroy rogue cells". You can't even begin to respond with logic and refutation if you haven't achieved anything close to the level of expertise required to be certified as a pathologist. Coming in here trying to play the angle of "well just model with supercomputers" isn't the winning ticket. Contrary to stereotypes of computer-illiterate doctors, there are some wicked smart people working in medicine (I've met and befriended many) and I guarantee your genius approach was considered and abandoned decades ago.
- killjoywashere 2y ago
  Looking through his comments, I think he's young and, as tends to go with youth, frustrated. This comment elsewhere in thread suggests he may be coming around: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40895503 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40895503
  - petermcneeley 2y ago
    I am not that young. If you go back far enough in the comments you will see that I completed my physics degree 15 years ago. I studied quite a bit of biology and I personally know multiple doctors. I am more bored than frustrated.
    - locopati 2y ago
      i truly hope you never have to experience cancer treatments for a loved one where the treatments end up not working in the end. it is humbling and eye opening.
- petermcneeley 2y ago
  Where did I say "just model with supercomputers"? Thats the biology problem it is super hard! I am literally saying that avoiding the hard problem is going to work in the general case. I would argue that radiation therapy is in this vein.
jghn 2y ago
I'm assuming you realize that the cancer community has been inundated by people from other domains for decades, right? If only those cancer researchers could think of this one idea that'd solve everything. And yet, somehow it persists.
slowmovintarget 2y ago
Terence Howard has some platonic solids for you.