Hacker News Reader

Comment by EvanAnderson | Hacker News Reader

Wow. I had no idea that one could get into medicine at that age. I feel like I'd been told that medical schools could discriminate based on age, with the idea being that an older person would be physically unable to serve for as long as a younger person.

I have an interest in medicine but simply wrote it off as being impossible because of my age.

View on HN

Beyond having the money or not. By the time you're in your mid-forties, I just don't have the stamina for late-nights that I did when I was 20, even 30. I'm sure the money, maturity, experience I've accumulated between 20-45 would help, but no doubt the raw endurance is lower. I would not enjoy these legendary 24hr+ rotations that residents apparently have to do.

But hats off to this guy -- i think it's very cool. Makes my daydreams of what I'd like to do post this-job seem quaint and underachieving.

But these 24hr shifts seems to be an US thing. In my country doctors would have a more relaxed schedule, in fact you will get a more pressing schedule if you are in tech.. but generally engineers start out with better salaries than doctors here, though slowly the doctors then catch up and retire with better salaries than engineers..

You can if you're the former CEO of RadioShack.

Not saying that to be snarky, just saying there's a bit of survivorship bias involved in this story, as well as positive feedback loops in society in general. People with the same ability to be an ER physician who don't have RadioShack CEO on their application will not be seen the same, even if they're equally able.

My dad is a professor of emergency medicine. There are med students that come through in their 30s or 40s (none are former CEOs). It’s obviously not as common as people in their early 20s, but that may just be a self-selection thing (rather than bias against older candidates per se).

iirc, my med school class had an above-30 social group that dubbed themselves "The Council of Elders."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com