My personal pivot from medicine into technology

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7 points·djacobs··5 comments

There’s no getting my hands dirty outside of work, and that puts a damper on being creative.

100% agree, as someone who had previously considered medical career (am now glad I haven't followed through). One can only learn from books so much -- the best learning is by doing, and if you can't do anything on your own -- well that's a pretty nasty deal breaker.

But I do want to kill the stereotype that becoming a doctor makes you a good person.

Of course it doesn't. It makes you a middle-class respectable person; being "good" is entirely up to you.

Of course it doesn't. It makes you a middle-class respectable person; being "good" is entirely up to you.

In some ways, my mentioning that stereotype is almost a strawman. But I included that line of thought because plenty of people believe actually are convinced that medicine is always more altruistic/people-centered than technology.

Wow this was a very helpful article. Thank you so much. I am in college now and have planned on being a doctor for most of my life. But I've been having a huge internal debate about staying pre-med vs. switching to a tech field. I've always been a techie, but have been spending a lot of time lately working on my programming. I am just very conflicted about the whole thing.

Why did you only want to go into medicine if you got into a top-tier school?

Looking back, I think working at Mass General Hospital put me in that mindset. Being in the MGH environment will convince you that you can only really be an effective doctor if you go to a top-tier school. That idea is obviously not valid, and I understand that now, but I was clearly in a haze last year.

Thanks for your very relevant question.

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