<p>Its likely that this question is has been answered time and time again, but the specifics are rather hard to search for on college confidential.</p>
<p>I've realized what I value in medicine is not a feeling of altruism. The notion of public service is there, but more as a side effect than anything else. No, my main motivation for med school is puzzling together symptom in a sort of 'mystery' and finding the diagnosis that fits within that puzzle. Its hard to describe, but judging from the people on this board I'm guessing many of you know this feeling quite well. But my question is, will such a motivation last for 11 years (pre-med+med school+residency), or will I just burn out prematurely? I've been trying to confirm my longevity by reading lots and lots of medical cases and its worked out so far. </p>
<p>I'm a premed myself so I can't offer a whole lot of insight, but I think I can say that reading medical cases is very different from actually practicing medicine.</p>
<p>I think people here are being overly dismissive. </p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that intellectual curiosity is an important part of being a physician. Right now that may manifest itself as merely problem solving, but there are other issues where this can play a part. It may lead to certain research questions that you pursue or simply mean that you'll do an excellent job keeping up with the literature in your specialty (no easy task). </p>
<p>What I think the more important question is not will this last the length of your training, but throughout your career. And it's more likely that something else will cause you to burn out (studying, paperwork, being on call, missing family events) than you suddenly not finding things interesting.</p>