Ask HN: Should I leave web development to study medicine in my mid-30s? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I leave web development to study medicine in my mid-30s?

7 pointslovepuzzles13 comments

Alt account for obvious reasons.

For a while, I’ve been quite demoralized about my job. I just can’t take pride in what I do as a web developer anymore. I don’t know if that will ever change. I can’t help feeling that a lot of dev jobs out there, whether highly or poorly paid, are kind of pointless in the grand scheme of things. I apologize for being so blunt: I just want to convey where my mind is at the moment. I struggle to see my own work as useful, and it’s seriously affecting my self-worth.

It’s bothering me to the point where I’m seriously considering a career change. The alternative I keep returning to is medicine. I feel drawn to work with a clear human purpose, in which my knowledge could directly help someone. Between self-study and late-night deployments, I already work long hours anyway. Part of me thinks I might as well redirect that effort toward something that feels like a net positive. However, I may be idealizing a profession I haven’t experienced firsthand.

If I were younger, I would go for it. But I have to be realistic about my age, finances, and the skills I’ve already acquired. I live in a European country where medicine is a six-year degree and tuition itself is manageable, but I don’t know if I can afford to put my life on pause for so long.

In hindsight, I can’t help but wonder whether coding was really a self-imposed limitation born from familiarity and fear. As a teenager, I spent an awful lot of time on my computer, so I grew up within that world. Maybe I shortchanged myself by not considering other life paths. Meanwhile, I increasingly feel detached from and disappointed by the direction of the modern web. AI tools are one of the few silver linings: ChatGPT and Claude have genuinely improved many parts of my life.

I’d be very grateful for any thoughts or advice. For the sake of my privacy and well-being, I won’t be responding to comments, but I will read and carefully consider all of them.

I am slightly older than you, and a physician working at a academic center in the US. Going into the field has placed me in close contact with persons from all walks of life, which I doubt I would have been exposed to had I picked another profession. I am grateful for how much it has taught me about life, death, families, and human resiliency.

With that in mind, I still advise NOT going into the field if you already have a stable career with above average income. It will take at minimum 10 years, of doing little else, before you will become a fully independent physician. Although some of this time can be shortened if you choose to become a PA/NP (sorry I don't know their equivalent in Europe, they are essentially clinicians with shortened training with some but limited individual practice autonomy).

If you work in a hospital every day is stressful. It is increasingly thankless although you still bear the brunt of responsibility and liability. You are also interchangeable.

I don't know if this helps explain my perspective of it's just a weird analogy, but being in a hospital feels like working in a grocery store now. You're told the margins are slim and you need to move produce (patients) faster out the door so that more produce can come in. A lot of the times the produce is not safe to sell but the managers pressure you to do it anyways. You could ask the managers (who were mostly at one point produce managers) to sell it but they would never. But if that apple you sold was mealy or at a rotten core its going to be on you.

While your experience is valuable, it may not be universal.

The US operates a for-profit health system. That has an impact on all the players. The OP is European (although doesn't say which country) ; most of Europe has a for-health health system. As such there is less incentive to churn through patients as fast as possible.

Personally I have experienced public health, and while clearly every interaction, hospital, country etc is different, I have not experienced time pressures. Sometimes the doc visit takes 5 minutes. One time over 2 hours. Of course the balance is a wait in the queue, which can be substantial, but I'm in the fortunate position that I can take a day off when necessary.

While neither system is perfect, overall I prefer the one which prioritzes good health outcomes.

>The US operates a for-profit health system.

I have a non profit insurance and most of the hospitals in my area are non-profit as well. Some of the parts of the system are for profit (maybe the imaging centers?, pharma companies), but most of it isn't... that doesn't seem to be the main issue.

Would you say that non-profit insurance companies and non-profit hospitals are the norm in the US? Or is your area an outlier?

non profit hospitals are the norm. Many insurance companies have capped profits. but the profits are capped as a percentage of revenue. So... Hmm...

The path to board-certified MD is long and I know my share of people who decided to get the MD but skip the residency and go into startups.

There are a large number of healthcare related jobs, such as nursing, psychotherapy, physical therapy and such that you can get into with less training and that you might even like better.

I thought this was likely to be a post about AI making your job feel pointless, but seems you feel the opposite way?

I've thought about this kind of thing a lot over my own career.

I'm not a subscriber of effective altruism, but I'd generally agree with them that the single best thing an individual can do is maximally acquire resources and use them in strategical ways to try to make the changes you want to see in the world.

So if you believe you make 1.5x more in tech than in medicine, I'd consider whether just putting that extra money aside and spending it on causes you believe in would allow you to have more of an impact.

Imo going into medicine is a bad way to make a difference. It's a noble thing to do, but whether it's you the job or someone else is I very much doubt a single person or animal would care. If you want to make a difference you should be striving to do something that would actually leave the world in a better state for you doing it.

Nothing wrong with just doing what you want to do though... The easiest life to change for the better is generally your own.

Web development is the lowest form of programming, it is the easiest to learn, is very transient, and has a lot of competition for low wages.

Doctor though is hard to learn, is highly skilled, the peak of their professional space, and so on.

I fell you've picked two alternatives that are poles apart. Surely there are choices between those 2? Have you considered moving up the programming food chain? Or perhaps a medical role that's not a doctor?

I'll be honest, once you said you won't respond to protect "well being" I don't think you'd like being a Dr. Sounds like you're looking for a low-stress environment (and medicine is not that). How are you going to cope with patients dying?

I think it would be helpful for you to see a psychologist to really understand your current feelings and motivations before you make large life choices. Jumping randomly out of the frying pan doesn't always end well.

For me, discovering new cool Python APIs gives me the same rush as learning C++ and AJAX did many decades ago. If it doesn't for you then maybe you should get out. Memorizing Latin names of bones, dealing with death, and having direct responsibility for other people's health is not for me, but if it is for you, go for it.

> Alt account for obvious reasons. [...] I have to be realistic about my age, [...] For the sake of my privacy and well-being,

These comments give room for pause. It's not obvious why you need to safeguard your privacy. They suggest that you may be dealing with feelings of shame or even guilt. You will be the oldest guy (or girl) in the class, your colleagues will be younger than you, and people will question your choices. Can you deal with it or is it too shameful? Only you can answer this question.

Medicine is a very satisfying profession but the road to it is long and winding, and not always fun. I'm an MD and data science major and at this point I would never do medicine again (although I'm obviously not neutral). Also because life changes and you get different responsibilities (e.g. mortgage, kids, partner etc). I agree with PaulHoule that healthcare-adjacent professions may be more in reach and equally satisfying. Psychotherapy, if you like the idea of it, is a beautifully deep and endlessly fascinating profession that is very far out of reach of anything AI.

Consider starting smaller, perhaps? I got my BLS and later EMT just to dip my toes into medicine and it was a great overall experience without having to commit to the serious investment of an MD.

1) it is VERY common for people with a college degree to change careers in their 30s and 40s.

2) take a Career Aptitude (or assessment) Test. Make sure the next profession matches what brings you happiness.

Maybe do some volunteering in the medical / healthcare / care-taking space.

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