Question for the GENIUSES currently in med school

[Mad Jack]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Watch some comparison videos for yourself and you can easily see that he draws the general outlines on the landscape and the major buildings very well. Beyond the most salient features though, he pretty much makes the rest of the background buildings up. Which is understandable, because real photographic memory does not exist.

He has a fairly exceptional visual memory, if not truly photographic, and even if it cannot truly hold details permanently.

There might be a day soon, however, when photographic memory is a very real thing. http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/darpa-project-starts-building-human-memory-prosthetics

http://www.popsci.com/technology/ar...hip-rats-can-remember-and-forget-touch-button

It's fascinating what these devices do in rats- it basically bypasses the normal sorting process for memories in the hippocampus and forces them all to be permanently encoded with great detail in animal studies. Rats could have their memory boosted to a great degree from some of the early reports I read a few years back. The military wants these implants to minimize soldier training time and maximize the retention of said training, but I think it'll be interesting to see what happens when you put someone who can never forget in traumatic situations that they'll always recall with vivid detail. Sounds like a procedure that would run a very high risk of driving a soldier completely insane if they weren't incredibly mentally stable. At least, until someone back at base could hit the "off" switch and make them forget, but who knows how much they'd lose if we used that option...

 

[whatever5]

I feel like if you're actually smart, you wouldn't go to medical school.

 

[ZPakEffect]

I feel like if you're actually smart, you wouldn't go to medical school.

Some people go to medical for other than reasons than because they think it is an efficient way to make money.

 

[TBV]

I feel like the geniuses at my school probably work the same amount as I do (4-6ish hours a day) but remember details much longer. Like they'll mention some mundane detail appropriately from some lecture we had like a year and a half ago. Kinda makes you turn your head and think damn this guy probably doesn't have to study for step.

 

[7331poas]

I feel like if you're actually smart, you wouldn't go to medical school.

Exactly. You have to think if at the end of good will hunting he says, "yea I'm gonna apply to med school", then that is kind of a waste.

 

[Mansamusa]

Exactly. You have to think if at the end of good will hunting he says, "yea I'm gonna apply to med school", then that is kind of a waste.

I think it was joke. As in, if you were smart you wouldn't go several $100K in debt and work 80hr/wks while not making money for 10 yrs with all the unknowns in healthcare reform, etc. It was self-deprecating humor

And I would hardly think that using uniquely strong memory skills in order to save patients' lives and progress the medical is a waste. But that's just me

 

[Demosthenes1]

Watch some comparison videos for yourself and you can easily see that he draws the general outlines on the landscape and the major buildings very well. Beyond the most salient features though, he pretty much makes the rest of the background buildings up. Which is understandable, because real photographic memory does not exist.

Eidetic memory is also a thing, though a good period of the people who are purported to have possessed it are now dead (notably: Euler)

 

[7331poas]

I think it was joke. As in, if you were smart you wouldn't go several $100K in debt and work 80hr/wks while not making money for 10 yrs with all the unknowns in healthcare reform, etc. It was self-deprecating humor

And I would hardly think that using uniquely strong memory skills in order to save patients' lives and progress the medical is a waste. But that's just me

If someone was really "smart" they could also be a PhD and cure actual diseases and save millions. So yea, its waste to be a good surgeon when you could be in the lab and physical cure that disease for entire populations. (ASSUMING you have the potential and ability to do so)

But like I said, something like that takes real skill. Not just memorization and technique.

I dont know why applicants feel the need to rationalize their decisions. I want to go to medical school so I can do surgery. Not because I have some insane belief that it is the best use of talent in the terms of memorization or critical thinking. If that was true I would be trying to solve problems on a much larger scale than individual patients. (and by "I" i am being general)

 

[Mansamusa]

If someone was really "smart" they could also be a PhD and cure actual diseases and save millions. So yea, its waste to be a good surgeon when you could be in the lab and physical cure that disease for entire populations. (ASSUMING you have the potential and ability to do so)

But like I said, something like that takes real skill. Not just memorization and technique.

I dont know why applicants feel the need to rationalize their decisions. I want to go to medical school so I can do surgery. Not because I have some insane belief that it is the best use of talent in the terms of memorization or critical thinking. If that was true I would be trying to solve problems on a much larger scale than individual patients. (and by "I" i am being general)

You know that PhD researcher don't cure diseases. They work on teams that slowly chip away at discovering treatments. And that would make pharm industry researchers the geniuses of the world then.

You've made it abundantly clear that you aren't interested in medicine and are only pre-med because you are bitter about the current state of research in the US and want job security. If you are not able to see how medicine can involve critical thinking and great innovation then you are being blinded by your bitterness

Edit: Moral of the story, being in a specific doesn't automatically make you a genius and you can be a genius within any field

 

[7331poas]

You know that PhD researcher don't cure diseases. They work on teams that slowly chip away at discovering treatments. And that would make pharm industry researchers the geniuses of the world then.

You've made it abundantly clear that you aren't interested in medicine and are only pre-med because you are bitter about the current state of research in the US and want job security. If you are not able to see how medicine can involve critical thinking and great innovation then you are being blinded by your bitterness

Edit: Moral of the story, being in a specific doesn't automatically make you a genius and you can be a genius within any field

Many of those researchers in pharma have PhDs. I am using the term as a placeholder for people that primarily do bench research or primary research.

I really do not see how clinicians involve great innovation although I will admit that I am not an MD and I could be totally wrong about it. Do you have some examples of clinical work that involves great innovation?

And no, I am not really primarily a research seeker, if anything I would be going into engineering over med school but I have passed that. I would prefer to do some form of surgery and that is the truth. I am just not going to delude myself in the process.

 

[Mansamusa]

Many of those researchers in pharma have PhDs. I am using the term as a placeholder for people that primarily do bench research or primary research.

I really do not see how clinicians involve great innovation although I will admit that I am not an MD and I could be totally wrong about it. Do you have some examples of clinical work that involves great innovation?

And no, I am not really primarily a research seeker, if anything I would be going into engineering over med school but I have passed that. I would prefer to do some form of surgery and that is the truth. I am just not going to delude myself in the process.

Fetal surgery is one example. New advances in minimally invasive surgeries. Things like handwashing and developing sterile techniques are innovations. The first US penis transplant on injured soldiers. Facial transplants. Developing innovative public policies to combat major health issues. There are plenty of examples.

As is the fact that any surgery can have unexpected complications and you need to be able to think quickly enough to improvise strategies and continually reevaluate everything as you go--> which is one place where some critical thinking comes into play

Plus, most specialized surgeons have to do research at every step of their training in order to get to the next level before they are finally attendings. Many surgeons would be able to hold their own as researchers (as would many nonsurgeon physicians), but choose not to since they have other interests. They don't lose their genius just because they choose not to do resesrch

 

[Mad Jack]

Some people go to medical for other than reasons than because they think it is an efficient way to make money.

He never said anything about money 😉

 

[mw18]

Photographic memory is a weird thing. I may have it and I'm not sure it exists. It definitely doesn't work for me like people think it does. I'm in med school, and I have to bust my ass to remember things like everyone else. But when I have something in my memory, I see it the way it is written and where it is written, on a flashcard for example. I don't know if that's different than other people remember things. But I also have few numbers saved in my phone, because I usually inherently remember them after seeing them once or twice. I didn't ever think about it until I bought a new phone several years ago and went to put numbers in. The phone froze and I had to put them in again. And then it did it again. I never bought a Motorola again and I realized I didn't need the contacts in my phone because I was adding them from memory. So my text messages are just from numbers. But people I'm in school with think I can just look at a page and know it, and it's nothing like that. But when I know a lecture note word for word they think it is. I'm sure other people really can do things like that, because there are savants who can do 7 figure multiplication in their head. Plus, how else would Mike Ross become a lawyer?

 

[Imperius]

For those who say that there is no such thing as photographic memory, look up Hyperthymesia.
http://www.peoplewithpotential.org/hyperthymesia