This NY Times article from the other day reports on the increasing numbers of lawyers and doctors who are plagued by self-doubt (who’d have ever thought that?). Mr. Juggles over at Long & Short Capital has no sympathy:
To the lawyers:
In case the Neiman Marcus purchases succeeded in lifting your morale and left you with the impression that what you did counted for something, please let me add some critical information: It doesnít. This is why you are paid, on an hourly-adjusted basis, like a recent (2nd tier) college graduate.
To the doctors:
The fact that I was able to diagnose my own illness after 15 min on WebMD speaks to the value of your knowledge. Perhaps our relationship would be more productive if you would stop making me wait 3 days for an appointment (and 90 minutes once I get to the office) to diagnose a sinus infection that I already know I have. Give me the antibiotics without the self-importance. I will come see you again when I have something you can actually be helpful with. For instance, after I break my arm trying to carry my bonus home, I will come see you and you can set the cast. Until then, please stop whining.
Totally agree about the doctors. Ten minutes on google and I know more about the diagnosis and treatment and care of any disease I have, and I certainly care a lot more about the outcome.
I’m quite capable of reading the same reference books and websites as the doctors do, and I’m happy to try various medicines to see what happens, just like they do.
Well, rcx141, that may well be the case, but would you also be tempted to sue yourself if you get a bad outcome from the treatment you recomended for yourself? If so, were you to file the papers yourself against yourself, that would be the ultimate elimination of the middle man (both the doctor and the lawyer).
rcx141,
As a physician, I have patients like you who I trust to make good medical decisions. I also have patients who do not know the difference between an infomercial and good unbiased research. And I have illiterate patients. I even have patients who have 3 kids, a spouse, a small business, and a sick parent- which doesn’t leave much time for google.com. I’m not saying that many people like you can’t take care of many of their own problems, but the vast majority of people can’t. Remember, there’s a reason that Jiffy Lube does good business, and it ain’t because oil changes are the complex purvey of Rhodes Scholars.