Hilarious NPR Broadcast about Gunners

[Gabujabu]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3837083

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[45408]

I hate the typical NPR intonation

 

[63768]

hahhahaha nice.

 

[DoctaJay]

Both funny and true. One thing scared me though. He mentioned how if they are all fumbling with the answer to a question, the gunner is the one that will answer it. So are you automatically made the scorn of your classmates if you answer a question they can't, or is it the atittude you have while doing it? Anyway, it was a good commentary.

 

[Depakote]

Great commentary.

 

[medhacker]

Someone should let gunners united have their own NPR article, it would be interesting to get a deeper glimse of the gunner mentality.

 

[xpinchx]

Hah. I haven't experienced that first-hand yet, but I am looking forward to dealing with that kind of crap.

 

[Falco2525]

Would not a good portion of SDNers be considered gunners? just a thought

 

[durfen]

The guy went to Harvard, enough said. Heaven for gunners, plus east-coast mentality. The major reason I'm trying to stay on the West-side.

 

[xpinchx]

Would not a good portion of SDNers be considered gunners? just a thought

You could just say that a good portion of SDNers would not be considered gunners and be less confusing. I'd say a majority of the people here are fairly down-to-earth and not wound up so tight. Gunners are so busy learning every useless fact out of their books they have no time to come online and find forums like these.

 

[asunshine]

good commentary. but at the same time, i wonder if i think the same thing about gunners just because i want to make myself feel better for not knowing all the answers

ditto on the NPR intonation. the only person who can get away with it without sounding totally snotty-east-coast is David Sedaris.

 

[DoctorFunk]

Both funny and true. One thing scared me though. He mentioned how if they are all fumbling with the answer to a question, the gunner is the one that will answer it.

I think the differences are as follows: the gunner will answer every question that everyone else is fumbling with and the gunner will often not give you much time to think about the question before chiming in.

You can definitely tell when another student is answering a question that was posed to you just because they know the physician won't move on until someone answers versus a gunner answering a question simply so they look better than their fellow students.

 

[Senor Fish]

Would not a good portion of SDNers be considered gunners? just a thought

I don't know, people on the forums seem pretty helpful- willing to share advice and experience. I wonder if that would change in a classroom setting...

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

I don't know, people on the forums seem pretty helpful- willing to share advice and experience. I wonder if that would change in a classroom setting...

Definitely - in a new York minute.

That movie about Transformers that's due to come out isn't about robots in disguise. It's about gunners in disguise. On SDN.

 

[njbmd]

Both funny and true. One thing scared me though. He mentioned how if they are all fumbling with the answer to a question, the gunner is the one that will answer it. So are you automatically made the scorn of your classmates if you answer a question they can't, or is it the atittude you have while doing it? Anyway, it was a good commentary.

No, it's doesn't generally work that way. The gunner is obnoxious because he or she doesn't give anyone a chance to answer the question. It's the "I am a higher form of life than you because I can answer the question faster" type of mentality. Sometimes, your buddy sitting next to you will whisper a hint that gets you over the nervous hump and that's not gunning. The gunner tries to make you feel "stupid" because your nerves or whatever keeps you from answering the question that you probably CAN answer if he or she (the gunner) is not blurting out the answers. The gunner is not trying to help you but attemping to "show off" for the professor and emphasize how stupid you are.

What do you do about gunners? Nothing but chalk them up to being immature. These are the same people that will round on your patients during third year and point out in front of the attending or chief resident, what you missed. This is where, I, the chief resident, will call them out. The attendings are on to them and I am onto them too.

By the way, Joe Wright is a friend of mine. He is one of the most thoughtful and interesting folks that I know. I have known him since before he went to medical school. He is exactly the type of medical student that Harvard clamors for and certainly the anthesis of what most pre-meds believe that Harvard wants. He is very well qualfied to speak about "gunners" as he is as opposite a gunner as anyone can be and yet he has done very well at Harvard. He is just a great guy and the consummate Californian.

 

[PHYCHO DR.]

i like that there are gunners. it gives me something to use my gunner powers on.

 

[notdeadyet]

I'd say a majority of the people here are fairly down-to-earth and not wound up so tight.

Interesting. I find folks on SDN far more tightly wound than any group of people I know on the Internet or in real life.

 

[xpinchx]

Interesting. I find folks on SDN far more tightly wound than any group of people I know on the Internet or in real life.

That said, we're all going through the same stressful situation of applying, interviewing, maintaining a high GPA, studying for MCAT, getting denied, etc. For that reason we're all under a lot of stress, but personality-wise I'd say most of us are here to help others rather than watch out for numero uno.

 

[45408]

Interesting. I find folks on SDN far more tightly wound than any group of people I know on the Internet or in real life.

That doesn't mean we want to see our classmates fail or that we'd sabotage them so that we succeed. Sometimes it's just insensitivity. If you aced the exam with a 98, and the average is a 72, it's not necessary to brag about your score. You know you beat almost everyone, so why mention it?

 

[xtreme HUNTER]

so why mention it?

so that everyone else knows!

 

[45408]

so that everyone else knows!

let's see....TROLL.

 

[Puddintame]

Both funny and true. One thing scared me though. He mentioned how if they are all fumbling with the answer to a question, the gunner is the one that will answer it. So are you automatically made the scorn of your classmates if you answer a question they can't, or is it the atittude you have while doing it? Anyway, it was a good commentary.

In my opinion, that's not what he described. He was talking about someone working through an answer and the gunner jumping in, taking advantage of the hesitation and preempting the other person's chance to complete the answer. He was not describing a situation in which the gunner is the only one in the class with the right answer.

 

[xtreme HUNTER]

In my opinion, that's not what he described. He was talking about someone working through an answer and the gunner jumping in, taking advantage of the hesitation and preempting the other person's chance to complete the answer. He was not describing a situation in which the gunner is the only one in the class with the right answer.

the gunner is never the only one with the answer, the PROFESSOR! if he is cool when the gunner is struggling he will jump in and say "ha gunner i know the answer". but perhaps that is against school policy. just a thought to stop the dreaded GUNNER!

 

[Puddintame]

the gunner is never the only one with the answer, the PROFESSOR! if he is cool when the gunner is struggling he will jump in and say "ha gunner i know the answer". but perhaps that is against school policy. just a thought to stop the dreaded GUNNER!

Your posts remind me of my neighbors' toy poodle and the way he used to hump a person's leg. Beyond the usual kick in the head, I could never figure what he got out of it. Eventually they neutered him and he quit.

 

[xtreme HUNTER]

Your posts remind me of my neighbors' toy poodle and the way he used to hump a person's leg. Beyond the usual kick in the head, I could never figure what he got out of it. Eventually they neutered him and he quit.

your posts remind me of a skitzophrenic LADY and how she used to spout out *****ic statements that was only nonsense to the nurses. beyond the usual crazy stare I could never figure what she got out of it. eventually they had the doctor perform a labotomy on her and she quit.

 

[45408]

your posts remind me of a skitzophrenic LADY and how she used to spout out *****ic statements that was only nonsense to the nurses. beyond the usual crazy stare I could never figure what she got out of it. eventually they had the doctor perform a labotomy on her and she quit.

I hunt trolls, and I've got a big, slow-moving one in my sights right now.

 

[ruthieblackdog]

These are the same people that will round on your patients during third year and point out in front of the attending or chief resident, what you missed.

Oh my goodness, do people actually do that?!?

I define a gunner as a student who is needlessly aggressive. Like asking unnecessary questions out of the scope of the class/conversation just to impress the professor.

 

[Xypathos]

Oh my goodness, do people actually do that?!?

I define a gunner as a student who is needlessly aggressive. Like asking unnecessary questions out of the scope of the class/conversation just to impress the professor.

I had that happen quite a bit in Chemistry class by one kid from Germany and eventually the professor walked over and sat his notes in front of the kid and said "Listen, since you can't shut your ****ing mouth, you teach the course. Ok?"

...the kid never asked a question again.

 

[njbmd]

Oh my goodness, do people actually do that?!?

I define a gunner as a student who is needlessly aggressive. Like asking unnecessary questions out of the scope of the class/conversation just to impress the professor.

That's a "sniper" as opposed to "gunner". Equally annoying for the most part both to the professor and to the class.

 

[notdeadyet]

If you aced the exam with a 98, and the average is a 72, it's not necessary to brag about your score. You know you beat almost everyone, so why mention it?

When your only source of success in life are your test scores.

 

[stiffany]

I had that happen quite a bit in Chemistry class by one kid from Germany and eventually the professor walked over and sat his notes in front of the kid and said "Listen, since you can't shut your ****ing mouth, you teach the course. Ok?"

...the kid never asked a question again.

Wow, what a dick (not the kid, the professor!) Even if the kid's obnoxious, he pays x amount of money per year (at my undergraduate, it worked out to something like $150-$300 per class depending on the number of times it met each week - thanks expensive education) to sit in that chemistry class. The least the prof could have done was pulled him aside after the lecture!

 

[45408]

Wow, what a dick (not the kid, the professor!) Even if the kid's obnoxious, he pays x amount of money per year (at my undergraduate, it worked out to something like $150-$300 per class depending on the number of times it met each week - thanks expensive education) to sit in that chemistry class. The least the prof could have done was pulled him aside after the lecture!

If it was in Germany at a public university, then the tuition was probably free for all citizens, in which case, the student wasn't paying any money. There's a big difference in asking actual questions a lot (which can be annoying, but is still acceptable) versus enjoying the sound of your inquisitive voice.

 

[Xypathos]

If it was in Germany at a public university, then the tuition was probably free for all citizens, in which case, the student wasn't paying any money. There's a big difference in asking actual questions a lot (which can be annoying, but is still acceptable) versus enjoying the sound of your inquisitive voice.

No, the kid was a foreign exchange from Germany --- I spoke with the Prof later on that year about the kid, supp. he's some hotshot from Germany who attended an International American school in Berlin and got a 4.0/1600 and came to our school to pick up his second bachelors degee in Chemistry (I think the first one was in physics). Prof said he was rejected by a lot of higher tiered schools due to his attitude and arrogance in the American education system. Prof wouldn't go into any private issues about the student but that he was later expelled from the school for writing papers about a third world war and Germany's birthrite to be the sole superpower and heir to the world.

He was a weird kid to begin with. He wore a pair of rabbit ears on his head, bright yellow fanny pack in front of black clothes with white combat boots.

I dunno how to explain it ... just weird kid.