Who the hell are guppies and gunners ?

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Sam32

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I hear people talk about some guppies ( obviously not the fish) and gunners, who the hell are they? Just FYI English is not my first language.
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I have never heard of a guppy.

Gunner is a term for a person who gets ahead by sabotaging his classmates/coworkers. It is commonly used as an insult on SDN.
 
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A gunner doesn't necessarily sabotage classmates. They are the classic one-uppers though. They are the ones that ask questions to sound intelligent. Ask what you got on a test 2 seconds into initiating a conversation and tend to be a bit abrasive and cut-throat. There are good gunners. They are the people that work very hard but also help their classmates. They want a competitive residency but aren't about to be a jerk to do it. Snipers will knock you down from the darkness and you'll never see it coming. They are worse than gunners because they buddy up to you simply to screw you over.
 
Are there good gunners?
because it seems that many pre-meds would be gunners, we all like to succeed and do well in our classes, but I know there are some that would sabotage others.
 
Ok, who are the guppies then ?
 
I've never heard the term "guppie" used in the academic setting before.

The traditional use of the term gunner refers to someone that places their own academic success above all else and will go to great lengths to achieve this. This includes acts such as sabotaging the competition by spreading false information or destroying common study resources (i.e. ripping the pages out of library books). It is an entirely negative term.

A more common use of the term gunner now is to imply that someone studies a lot. This ignores the hypercompetitive/sabotaging aspect above and and encompasses a much larger group of students. It is less negative, but not necessarily true to the root of the word.
 
Oh. I always assumed "guppy" was referring to the puny little fish, often used as feeders for turtles, snakes, etc.

http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Livebe76.jpg

So a "guppy" is someone who is not very aggressive and often gets taken advantage of.

I thought "Gunner" refers either to the common football term for someone whose specific mission is to sprint down the field to tackle the dude with the ball or literally someone who guns (like, a sniper). Either way, it means someone who's willing to take down anyone in his way to achieve what he wants. Very aggressive, and basically the opposite of a "guppy".
 
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Gunner:

ac130_gunner-798727.jpg


Guppy:
guppy2.jpg


😏
 
MossPoh said:
A gunner doesn't necessarily sabotage classmates. They are the classic one-uppers though. They are the ones that ask questions to sound intelligent. Ask what you got on a test 2 seconds into initiating a conversation and tend to be a bit abrasive and cut-throat. There are good gunners. They are the people that work very hard but also help their classmates. They want a competitive residency but aren't about to be a jerk to do it. Snipers will knock you down from the darkness and you'll never see it coming. They are worse than gunners because they buddy up to you simply to screw you over.
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Disagree. A Gunner by definition compromises interpersonal relationships to get what they want. The are NOT the folks who sit in the front and ask questions. I don't know what you call those people, but they are not gunners. A gunner more likely will never talk in class unless it serves their goals (what you describe as a sniper is actually one form of gunner). But ALL gunners by definition want to screw you over. That's what being a gunner is all about -- getting up by pushing others down. Plain and simple. People who work hard and help classmates by definition are the OPPOSITE of gunners. A gunner is not someone who works hard and does well - that is a bastardization of the term. A gunner might work hard, but doing well is less important to him than doing better than whomever he regards as competition. He would rather get the one D in a class of Fs than be one of many who gets an A.

I've never heard the term guppy outside of SDN and suggest it's not something used in med school parlance.
 
Depakote said:
...
A more common use of the term gunner now is to imply that someone studies a lot. This ignores the hypercompetitive/sabotaging aspect above and and encompasses a much larger group of students. It is less negative, but not necessarily true to the root of the word.
Click to expand...

It's not more common -- it's a bastardization of the term (a term which has been around for many decades BTW, and not just in medicine, but also law and other professional schools, so it's not like a modest number of premeds can change the definition by misusing the term). Sort of like calling someone you dislike or are teasing a fascist or a commie. Doesn't mean they actually have those political leanings -- you are simply misusing the term to connote something unpleasant or taunting. Such is the case when people throw around the phrase gunner or slacker (which isn't the antonym, but people misuse it as such). But make no mistake the definition of the term doesn't get changed because people misuse it in this way. A gunner is someone who compromises relationships to get what s/he wants. It is a pejorative. Being someone who works hard and does well doesn't make you a gunner any more than it makes you a fascist. But doing well by making others do worse will make you a gunner. That is the actual definition of the term. How it gets thrown around in fun or taunting or mistake isn't.
 
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Thank you 😀 Its rare that I come upon words that I don't know after 8 years in the U.S.

btw....that quote was form 40yr old virgin, which I happened to be watching when i wrote that...haha
 
Law2Doc said:
It's not more common -- it's a bastardization of the term (a term which has been around for many decades BTW, and not just in medicine, but also law and other professional schools, so it's not like a modest number of premeds can change the definition by misusing the term). Sort of like calling someone you dislike or are teasing a fascist or a commie. Doesn't mean they actually have those political leanings -- you are simply misusing the term to connote something unpleasant or taunting. Such is the case when people throw around the phrase gunner or slacker (which isn't the antonym, but people misuse it as such). But make no mistake the definition of the term doesn't get changed because people misuse it in this way. A gunner is someone who compromises relationships to get what s/he wants. It is a pejorative. Being someone who works hard and does well doesn't make you a gunner any more than it makes you a fascist. But doing well by making others do worse will make you a gunner. That is the actual definition of the term. How it gets thrown around in fun or taunting or mistake isn't.
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I didn't mean to imply that it was used correctly... it's just the context you're most likely to hear it, proper use of the term or not.
 
Depakote said:
I didn't mean to imply that it was used correctly... it's just the context you're most likely to hear it, proper use of the term or not.
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I'd say you most likely hear it thrown around as a taunt. Like someone who studies all the time is "such a gunner". But it's being used not for the meaning, but because it's a taunt. Like someone who is very opinionated might be described as "such a fascist". But again, this doesn't suggest that he is actually a believer in those political approaches, it's just a taunt. And use of that term in that way doesn't change the actual meaning, it just means you are using it wrong. Much in the way that premeds use gunner wrong. But the ultimate definition, one that significantly predated SDN, and probably was used in fields such as law as least as early on as medicine (if not before), is a person who compromises personal relationships to get what he wants. It's not someone gunning for an A by studying. It's someone who guns down everyone in their way to get that A. It's not the guy you want to be.

Part of the reason premeds misuse the term so often, is that gunners tend not to present themselves until the later years of med school, when subjective grading opens people up to these kind of tactics. Being a gunner is pretty difficult when the grading is objective. But when you get compared to others on rotations, suddenly the gunner sees that pushing others down is as effective as pulling himself up. And sometimes easier. So that's when the barbs come out. But since premeds don't get exposed to this until much later in the educational process, and premeds like to use lingo, it's not surprising that they misuse the term -- trying to label people as gunners long before the time that gunners come out and play. But again, this doesn't detract from the actual meaning of the term, it just means that many people who have never seen a gunner in action misuse the term.
 
Really enjoyed the points you made in the second paragraph. Makes sense. Thanks man.

Law2Doc said:
I'd say you most likely hear it thrown around as a taunt. Like someone who studies all the time is "such a gunner". But it's being used not for the meaning, but because it's a taunt. Like someone who is very opinionated might be described as "such a fascist". But again, this doesn't suggest that he is actually a believer in those political approaches, it's just a taunt. And use of that term in that way doesn't change the actual meaning, it just means you are using it wrong. Much in the way that premeds use gunner wrong. But the ultimate definition, one that significantly predated SDN, and probably was used in fields such as law as least as early on as medicine (if not before), is a person who compromises personal relationships to get what he wants. It's not someone gunning for an A by studying. It's someone who guns down everyone in their way to get that A. It's not the guy you want to be.

Part of the reason premeds misuse the term so often, is that gunners tend not to present themselves until the later years of med school, when subjective grading opens people up to these kind of tactics. Being a gunner is pretty difficult when the grading is objective. But when you get compared to others on rotations, suddenly the gunner sees that pushing others down is as effective as pulling himself up. And sometimes easier. So that's when the barbs come out. But since premeds don't get exposed to this until much later in the educational process, and premeds like to use lingo, it's not surprising that they misuse the term -- trying to label people as gunners long before the time that gunners come out and play. But again, this doesn't detract from the actual meaning of the term, it just means that many people who have never seen a gunner in action misuse the term.
Click to expand...
 
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