A lot of bright young people consider going into medicine. Like any profession, it has its downsides, but, at least to me, it was pretty obvious that those downsides were much bigger than in many other fields. But, not having gone through it myself, I can’t exactly speak to what it’s like. For those considering it, here’s a fascinating rant from Ali Binazir. The short answer is, no. Don’t do it, unless
You have only ever envisioned yourself as a doctor and can only derive professional fulfillment in life by taking care of sick people. You should become a doc because you always wanted to work for Medecins Sans Frontières and your life will be half-lived without that. You should become a doc because you want to be the psychiatrist who makes a breakthrough in schizophrenia treatment. You should become a doc because you love making sick kids feel better and being the one to reassure the parents that it’ll all be OK, and nothing else in the world measures up to that.
But woe betide you if there’s anything else, anything at all, that would also give you that fulfillment. Because pursuit of medicine would preclude chasing down that other dream and a whole lot more — a dream that could be much bigger, much more spectacular, much more enriching for yourself and humanity than being a physician.
Additionally, see this Hacker News thread. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a discussion on the internet where more people agree about something.
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