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Medicine. It's significantly harder than software engineering in terms of the lifestyle and demands on you, but I've never been happier or more fulfilled. A lot

Medicine. It's significantly harder than software engineering in terms of the lifestyle and demands on you, but I've never been happier or more fulfilled. A lot of the skills translate over, other than perhaps the actual coding.

RealityVoid 2y ago
So did you start med school? How old are you? It takes a long time to get to practice, so I'm wondering what is the full story here.
- jmcgough 2y ago
  In my 30s, quit my last startup about 2.5 years ago. Have been an EM scribe the last two years which has been amazing clinical experience. Did my premed coursework a decade ago when I did neuroscience. Just needed biochem, and about 800 hours of self-study for the MCAT. Interview two weeks ago, fairly optimistic about this cycle but if not, I think next cycle will go well. Everyone focuses on the amount of schooling and training that this requires. I am happy when I am helping people and constantly learning new things, and I'm already doing both. There are a lot of other options than just med school, tbh you can make as much money with way less schooling as an anesthesiology assistant.
  - barrenko 2y ago
    This is awesome, I got interested in biochem via AI. And the idea of being AI-assisted doctor sounds much healthier than being an AI-assisted coder.
  - prashp 2y ago
    I would be curious to hear your opinion on this when you are closer to the end of your residency program. The way medical education programs are structured is inhumane, no amount of money would convince me to go through it in its current form (assuming a north american perspective). Source: most of my family are in medicine.
xyst 2y ago
Medicine is a nice pivot. I was in this exact opposite scenario in college though. In prep for my MCAT, I was an emergency medicine scribe. The experience there broke me and I truly realized how shitty medicine (at least in the US) really is. Once you finish med school, complete all of the exams (STEP?), get a residency spot, and finally become an MD (or DO). The challenge doesn’t stop there. Now you get to deal with a whole another beast: hospital and clinical based medicine in a neoclassical economic setting. Your patients don’t matter. Their outcomes (unless sued) don’t matter. What matters is pumping your billings at the end of the quarter, dealing with endless amounts of paperwork with private insurance. Healthcare in the US is a mess and I am glad I switched early before getting myself into $250K+ or more worth of debt (med school is expensive af).

RealityVoid 2y ago

So did you start med school? How old are you? It takes a long time to get to practice, so I'm wondering what is the full story here.

jmcgough 2y ago
In my 30s, quit my last startup about 2.5 years ago. Have been an EM scribe the last two years which has been amazing clinical experience. Did my premed coursework a decade ago when I did neuroscience. Just needed biochem, and about 800 hours of self-study for the MCAT. Interview two weeks ago, fairly optimistic about this cycle but if not, I think next cycle will go well. Everyone focuses on the amount of schooling and training that this requires. I am happy when I am helping people and constantly learning new things, and I'm already doing both. There are a lot of other options than just med school, tbh you can make as much money with way less schooling as an anesthesiology assistant.
- barrenko 2y ago
  This is awesome, I got interested in biochem via AI. And the idea of being AI-assisted doctor sounds much healthier than being an AI-assisted coder.
- prashp 2y ago
  I would be curious to hear your opinion on this when you are closer to the end of your residency program. The way medical education programs are structured is inhumane, no amount of money would convince me to go through it in its current form (assuming a north american perspective). Source: most of my family are in medicine.

xyst 2y ago

Medicine is a nice pivot. I was in this exact opposite scenario in college though. In prep for my MCAT, I was an emergency medicine scribe. The experience there broke me and I truly realized how shitty medicine (at least in the US) really is. Once you finish med school, complete all of the exams (STEP?), get a residency spot, and finally become an MD (or DO). The challenge doesn’t stop there. Now you get to deal with a whole another beast: hospital and clinical based medicine in a neoclassical economic setting. Your patients don’t matter. Their outcomes (unless sued) don’t matter. What matters is pumping your billings at the end of the quarter, dealing with endless amounts of paperwork with private insurance. Healthcare in the US is a mess and I am glad I switched early before getting myself into $250K+ or more worth of debt (med school is expensive af).