Doctors - America's Top Paying Job

[sakky]

<p>

whatever this is a stupid argument and i’m not going to continue it after this post.

</p>

<p>Uh, if you really thought the argument was so stupid, then why bother participating in it at all? So you think a particular activity is stupid, yet continue to spend time on it anyway. Hmmm. </p>

<p>

i was using that example personally. i live in the suburbs about 25 mins away from a major city, and my friends and i manage to go out to the city a few weekends every month to have fun since there is more stuff to do there.</p>

<p>you can tell me all you want how i have less responsibilities and more time now than i will when i’m an adult or how i live with my parents and don’t have to provide for myself, but the bottom line is where there is a will there is a way. if you want to have fun you can make it happen. if you complain about every inconvenience you have in your life compared to someone elses, then you won’t have fun, and that sucks for you.

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<p>Uh, I’m hardly “complaining” about anything. I am simply expressing the economic truism that there is a reason why trendy areas are expensive to live in. If everybody really could conveniently commute to everything they wanted all the time, then there would be no reason for anybody to ever live in expensive areas. </p>

<p>So let me turn the question around to you. Why are people willing to pay high prices to live in North Beach or the Marina of San Francisco? Or Boston’s Beacon Hill? All of these people could simply choose to live in cheaper far-away suburbs. Does that mean that these people are just being stupid?</p>

[afan]

<p>Life looks different when you are a 40-something responsible professional.</p>

<p>Not to be a wet blanket, but most docs I know rarely go out to “bars and clubs”. Even those without children come home, finish the day’s work, do some medical reading, try to do some general reading, and go to bed. </p>

<p>Weekends are a great chance to catch up on reading, and on sleep, and run errands. </p>

<p>If they have kids, add: spend time with children, ferry them to soccer practice/music lessons/ friends houses, etc.</p>

<p>It is nice to have access to the stimulation of a major city, but the opportunity to take advantage does not come up very often.</p>

[sakky]

<p>

Life looks different when you are a 40-something responsible professional.</p>

<p>Not to be a wet blanket, but most docs I know rarely go out to “bars and clubs”. Even those without children come home, finish the day’s work, do some medical reading, try to do some general reading, and go to bed.</p>

<p>Weekends are a great chance to catch up on reading, and on sleep, and run errands.</p>

<p>If they have kids, add: spend time with children, ferry them to soccer practice/music lessons/ friends houses, etc.</p>

<p>It is nice to have access to the stimulation of a major city, but the opportunity to take advantage does not come up very often.

</p>

<p>Exactly right, but I think many of those 40-something docs would have probably engaged in that sort of trendy nightlife when they were younger, if they had the money and the opportunity. </p>

<p>In fact, that’s exactly my point. Some things you can do only when you’re young. You don’t want to be the ‘old guy’ in the club that everybody is snickering at. Becoming a doctor essentially means to sacrifice your youth which commensurately means sacrificing many things you can do only when you’re young. </p>

<p>Is that worth it? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But we should not pretend that you aren’t sacrificing something valuable. You are. </p>

<p>For example, my high school had numerous teachers who had grown up in the 60’s and had lived the prototypical “60’s lifestyle”, including a few who went to Woodstock and one who toured as a Deadhead for more than a year. While obviously they can’t live that kind of lifestyle anymore - what with kids and mortgages to attend to - they’re all invariably glad that they enjoyed those experiences when they were young.</p>