Wise from old mistakes, now he just lies if the guy next to him on a plane asks what he does.
I'm a mathematician.
I'm really not sure why people assume it is an MD. This happens with great regularity to the point where I've long since discarded the title and ask to not be introduced as Dr. KGIII.
It seems a strange assumption for people to make, and it's often people with college educations that make that assumption.
Not sure why you're unsure. It's one of the first 'professions' people get introduced to (as kids), and that label is there. "Tell the dr XYZ", "let's go to the dr", etc. It's a "doctor's office".
There's few other professions the general public interacts with with a label in front of it all the time, and it's almost always the medical one we know first, and most often.
Outside of academic settings, the 'dr' title doesn't get used much except by medical professionals.
You and I are probably sharing similar experiences. In both our cases, we probably have had much more exposure to doctors who aren't medical practitioners.
Yet, I don't immediately think of medical doctor.
Caveat, I am not sure if I used to immediately think medical doctor before I noticed the assumptions being made about me. I don't know if I assumed doctor meant medical doctor before I was exposed to the bias.
I may have, but my brain doesn't function like that and I don't remember.
shrugs
It's been a bit of a personal mystery since 1991. Technically, probably sooner.
Edit: Removed sentence that could be interpreted as a pejorative towards my ex and added nothing to the post.
Personally, the only time I have volunteered the honorific is when talking to my congressional representatives.
One of my favorite examples:
I was on a public access cable show talking about how the project was going to be a temporary problem for traffic congestion and about the benefits of the project.
We took a short break and came back for the final ten minutes which was to be a question and answer phase. The questions were to come from audience members or by phone. The audience was made up entirely of the meager production crew and an employee of mine.
The host invited people to call in and ask Dr. KGIII questions. The very first one was a person with a strong regional accent and I don't remember the exact verbiage but they had a question about their irritable bowel syndrome - or wanted it diagnosed, something like that.
I explained that I wasn't a medical doctor and the person on the phone responded with something like, "Well, you're a doctor, ain't you? You gotta know something!"
I nearly peed myself laughing. I'll leave the region out of the story, I don't really want to reinforce stereotypes.
More than once have I drunkenly handed out bad medical advice.
At HN, going off on a tangent is frowned upon.
since i own a small business i just tell people i work in finance now. less questions and comments and more quiet, inaccurate assumptions of wealth and power which i am happy to let be.