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Comment by boomboomsubban | Hacker News Reader

I think it's less them complaining more them sort of perplexed. I've been "annoyed" at things that go completely different then I expected when I have no explanation for why.

Definitely poor patient interaction from the doctors, but I don't think it's their hubris. Just that they're people like anyone else.

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So many doctors have an origin story that's rooted in Illusion of Control.

I became an oncologist because my mother died of cancer. I became an neurosurgeon because my cousin died of a brain tumor. They built a whole personality around a scared kid who vowed that one day they would know what is in the darkness and defeat it. But the darkness is vast and our time is very short.

We are just beginning to talk about how many doctors are walking around with PTSD they got on the job. Nobody is talking about the ones who already had it before they even got accepted into college.

That's cynical. They might wish to help others avoid their misery which is an admirable goal. Just like many people who have been starving are very keen to share food.

It might well be cynical; but it is nonetheless true that many doctors suffer from the stress of the job. A very smart schoolfriend of mine studied medicine and became a general practitioner. He stuck to it for about ten years before giving up because the weight of responsibility was too much for him; he moved into bespoke software for medical practices instead.

You have a better explanation for the constant stream of complains about doctors shooting the messenger? If so a bunch of people are dying to hear it.

A scientist, encountering evidence contradicting theory, thinks that's interesting...

MDs don't practice science; they apply science.

I almost edited my comment along those lines. Except I was going to say the people who reject interesting exceptions don't practice science, they practice scientism. And I think that's bad in anyone, especially an MD (who AFAIK are trained as scientists who don't know everything, which is why they call it "practicing" medicine).

Yes, and it is a feature. A) it protects them legally and mentally (you just follow the current standard)

B) you do not want your doctor to have a scientific mindset, which would mean experimenting with your condition with the aim to learn more about nature

At most you want the detective mindset (aka House MD), if you have something uncommon, but you do not want it all the time.

What do you call the person who graduated last in medical school? Doctor.

But they won’t practice unless they pass the board exam.

OK fine, let's build on the joke.

What do you call the person who graduated last in their medical school AND passes the USMLE (United States Licensing Exam) steps with the lowest passing score?

Doctor.

See? Now it’s funny!

What do you call someone who thinks they’re smart enough to understand the human body but have trouble understanding a joke? Doctor.

They’re doctors and have been through several years of academic rigor which should prepare them for reassessing their assumptions when those turn out to be wrong. I’m hardly qualified to assess this patient’s brain, but I’m family with several people who are quite qualified for this kind of reassessment of facts and I… frankly stop talking to them about things when it’s clear they’re overconfident in their assumptions. Yeah they’re human. But having a doctor tell you the reality you experience is absurd and impossible is quite a lot worse than having a lay person do the same.

Doctors are generally poor at questioning their assumptions. You constantly hear of cases where many doctors missed the actual problem for a long time.

Most cases come under standard frameworks and diagnosis will be correct, however if you are the exception then tough luck in getting a right diagnosis on time

Doctors are taught not to look for rare things, despite rare things happening all the time. And many of those rare things wouldn’t be considered rare in the first place if they bothered looking for them.

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