>

Some have so many things to constantly learn in order to be good at this one thing they do, that they don't have time to exercise any other skill or knowledge. My friend is one of them. He is a good doctor and everyone in the hospital trusts him but when it comes to social skills or anything other than his profession he seems dumb as fck.
I work in an operating room, and I have colleagues who I’d allow to dissect brain tissue with full confidence that they are the right person for the job who I wouldn’t trust to make me a peanut butter and jam sandwich. >

same thing happens in engineering and techincians fields. I have had coworker I wouldn't trust with a screwdrive near me and ones I would trust to fix or build anything.
An MD seems like a really intense technical/trades degree. >

It's a trend that high aptitude in a prestigious field can often inhibit a broader understanding in other areas. Since people like that assume skill and understanding translate cleanly instead of realizing it is hilariously inconsistent. >

Most people learn 1 field in a school and don't really need to learn anything else in life. The chance of becoming a doctor is also tied to wealth and comfort in childhood years. Middle class at least, or parents willing to financially support you. >

I didn't touch on this but the other issue is that highly specialized fields often pull away studying and attention from broader subjects.
People like to complain about the Liberal Arts or a broader approach to primary education. But the benefit is your knowledge is more well rounded (In theory at least). >

Not even in theory. Ever meet a Classics major? Holy shit,  they're some of the smartest people I've met.
Pre-med seniors? Can barely make a grilled cheese sandwich. >

I'm 42 years old and this is the first time anybody mentioned my degree without making fun of me! 
Thank you! >

Aw, all those dead languages weren't for nothing. >

My sister has a phd. She also managed to drive 600 miles without headlights. >

How do you know how far it was? >

Gps, maps,odometers... She drove entirely at night and said nothing changed. >

Is she an owl? >

On a clear sky night, with decent moonlight you actually have better visibility without the headlights, the problem is that no one else can see you.
Me and my sister call these people "The Batman", see someone driving at night without headlight "Oh shit, did you see that, it's the Batman!" >

I work in IT and supported many doctors over the years.  I once had a brain surgeon tell me he was so dumb because he couldn’t figure out his computer issue and ad to call support.  I said look man calling yourself dumb for not knowing how to get a windows machine to boot after a boot sector mess up isn’t dumb.  I am not going to walk into a operating room and look at a human with their head cracked open getting operated on and call myself stupid for not knowing that.  You are highly trained in what you do better than probably 1% of the population you are not dumb but it is humbling. >

My wife is an MD. I hang out with doctors from time to time. Yea, I've run into quite a few that seem pretty stupid. Then again, we're all pretty stupid every now and then. It just goes to show that doctors are human too. >

It’s more that they spend such a large amount of time and energy devoted to a very specific skill set. Not all of them had time, money or energy to develop a lot of the other things people with less strenuous studies did. >

Such as social tact. >

Can confirm lol. Some of the best doctors that patients love are complete asshats in general >

I’ve met more dumb people who weren’t doctors than dumb people who were. >

Lol touché >

No one ever said every physician was an Einstein, but every physician in the US is going to be in the top 1% most intelligent and most educated people with regards to medical sciences. 
You may have had some anecdotal experiences with doctors without interpersonal skills or who were overburdened and overworked by the healthcare system within the United States but it doesn’t make what you have written true. Additionally, posts like this lead to a mistrust in the healthcare system as a whole. If you don’t like a particular doctor or how a particular health system works fine, don’t go there anymore. But don’t spew out blanket statements like you have here. >

Physician, as well.  I will say, by, at least American standards, I guess physicians are more "intelligent" by grades and whatnot.  I have no idea how to do 99% of what my friends do at their individual jobs.  We just have different training. 
 Usually, to get into an american medical school, you need at least around an A-/3.7 GPA (maybe 3.5) in college and good MCAT score.  I don't think that is 1%, though.  I will credit those that say "they are focused on what they are doing" and get tunnel vision.  Definitely true.  Including myself.  That being said, I am very surprised by the lack of a broad base of knowledge from many of my colleagues.  When it comes to some of the ole high school classes that were emphasized...history, literature, geography, etc...many have very poor knowledge in these subjects.  Always found it weird.  
The "mistrust in the healthcare system" is a different topic that I feel for FIRE_CHIP on.  We live in difficult times, especially since the covid pandemic, and infowars.  I 100% sympathize with this.  Not because the OP comment is flawed, but because of the culture we currently live in.  With infowars and the like/conspiracy theories/antivax...you name it, people try to grab whatever juice they can find, and run with it.  But, despite my sympathies, does that mean we can never talk critically about certain topic just because some people are going to abuse misinformation.  My answer is we cannot >

Unless you're an URM, you probably aren't getting into med school with a 3.7 let alone a 3.5 >

I got into a few top med schools less than 10 years ago with a 3.7. 3.5+ is fine I think if everything else is in line. >

You're underestimating the arms race it has become, it is no longer fine >

There is a degree of correlation between education and intelligence but it’s not cut and dry. 
Some people only make it through advanced degrees because they are stubborn and hard working, or cheat their way through school. 
There are plenty of highly intelligent individuals who can’t pursue advanced degrees due to the cost, or simply aren’t motivated enough to do so.
There is a smaller population of people who are highly intelligent AND passionate about what they study. That being said, not every person with a high IQ has a high EQ. You could be a master of your trade but an idiot when it comes to people / common sense / street smartness.
Lastly, there is a very small population of highly intelligent individuals with high emotional intelligence and great social skills. Edit: removed part about smart, high EQ people being good leaders or CXO’a because this is apparently very controversial >

And there are those who end up doing masters/PhD because they can't find a job. >

True, especially in the humanities. Pretty easy to get a STEM job with a bachelors >

Depends on the field. Chemistry is notorious for needing a PhD if you want to do anything besides being a lab tech. >

same with biology. or many basic sciences. STEMs getting good jobs right away is becoming a myth for all the non-engineers >

On a similar note, some of the most unstable, immature people I've ever known are therapist. >

Real as hell, a lot of people study psychology to understand their own issues better. >

My friend has a joke that basically goes “Women get degrees in psychology just to get manipulated by dudes who struggled through special ed” lmao. >

Brutal >

I honestly think it’s because a lot of doctors use ALL of their brain juice on doctor-ing. My cousin is a paediatric surgeon and is fantastic at her job, i’d trust her with anything medical - I have also seen her nearly get run over by cars on SEVERAL occasions. The woman can operate on children but has not yet mastered crossing the road… >


The woman can operate on children but has not yet mastered crossing the road…

Wait a second, I think your cousin might be married to u/AoiGyoshi's friend!

A guy I know is married to a Ph.D. Apparently, in her field, she is one of the smartest people ever. I have seen her struggle to cross the street by herself. She has zero common sense. >

PhDs don't do surgery. >

A lot of doctors are double PhD and MD. The geneticists I work with are. >

Some neurosurgical programs end with both MD and PhD. >

In the netherlands it is almost fully a requirement to have a PhD before being accepted into neurosurgery residency >

I used to work in higher ed. Some, if not most of the PhD's I worked with I wouldn't trust with a butter knife. >

My husband had a fellow PhD student set something on fire in their lab because they were that clueless. >

Know a Environmental Engineering PhD candidate that lost an F-250 4x4 in a field to a fire. Allegedly the exhaust could not have possibly caught the grass of fire. Anyway, the only thing left was the license tag, even the engine block melted. The best part was the project was a joint effort between Civil Engineering and Geology, the truck belonged to the Geology department, which is in the College of Arts & Sciences, so no one in his department or the College of Engineering really cared and he still matriculated with a PhD. >

That just reminds me of Matt Damon's/Mark Watney's anecdote in the Martian on how JPL got started. >

Don't mistake education for intelligence >

Try teaching pre-med students in STEM courses. They're absolutely obsessed with their grades and will hound you to Hell and back over every missing point, yet they refuse to understand that actually understanding the material might help their grades.
Rote memorization until the day of the test, then just forget everything. >

that's what highschool does to a brain, specially those that want to go to high grades universities like med school.. People loose curiosity, interest, creativity, etc and just start looking into "how to maximize my grade with the less effort possible for this career path" >

Why would I spend 200k to be curious though. I need a job and want to make money and school is a means to get there >


Why would I spend 200k to be curious though

IMO, because it's the most valuable pursuit in life. >

I mean I’m curious and learn lots of stuff but it’s not something I’m going to learn at school. I have the worlds knowledge available to me with the internet. I spend my time learning about fishing and my hobbies. I can go learn what physics makes an arrow fly better and how to tune my bow setup to work better. I don’t care about 17th century history or whatever most of my gen eds focused on. I have to work to afford my hobbies and college was the most practical way to do that. I’m able to work when I fall mountain biking and hurt myself unlike my trades friends. >

To be honest, I think schooling （at least in my country) is just meant to select candidates who can survive under endless boring task, and be careful enough to answer questions correctly, because those quality are what cooperation and government looking for. 
Curiousity is good, but I think that is just a bonus in education system. >

Yeah the degree shows you have some level of understanding of a subject and that you were able to do the work, meet deadlines and show up. If someone has a degree and a second equal person doesn’t it is just easier for an hr person to take the candidate with a degree >

I am a med student. 
I used to think that some of my peers are some of the dumbest and most childish people I’ve met in my life. 
Then I started clinical years and I met actually stupid people. It blew my mind how wrong I was. 
Do you have to be brilliant to become a doctor? Absolutely not. Most of us are just more hardworking and narcissistic than the average person. Probably higher than average intelligence, but not geniuses or anything. 
Are there doctors who you have met that are literally some of the dumbest people you’ve met? Probably not, unless you don’t interact with people that much.
Edit - Spelling >

You sound exactly like my daughter. Worked her butt off to be top 10 in a large HS, started pre med, then was diagnosed as ADD and dyslexic. We thought, oh well, her volleyball skills were paying for college, so she will get her degree...... she had other ideas. She applied for considerations for having a disability, and then proceeded to study ALL THE TIME, and graduated with all A's. Studied for a solid 6mos., +12hrs/day to take the MCAT, but never asked if she could have the same considerations as college, so she did above avg, but not well enough to get an offer. One of her advisors asked why she didn't get the considerations, so she applied for and was approved,  studied her butt off for another 6mos, and got a high enough score to get in to the med school at her alma mater. This kid has absolutely no street smarts, no STEM skills, despite my wife and I both being engineers, BUT is the kindest, hardest working human that I know. Would I ask her to show me how to adjust the hospital bed? Nope. Would I trust her to be my Dr? Yup. Everyone is different. >

A medical doctor without STEM skills? >

Hard work is more important than talent 90% of the time. >

I'd call being able to learn enough biology to earn an MD, no matter the amount of effort a STEM skill. >

This is basically why the whole appeal to an authority figure fallacy is a thing.
I've had a similar experience, just completed a PhD and met some unbelievably dense people along the way. >

Yeah, someone having a PhD just means that they have a lot of knowledge in a specific area, it does nothing to guarantee a breadth of knowledge at all, and does even less to make sure that they can actually apply their knowledge. >

Even that is debatable. A lot of phds today are pushed out. People are buying their phds. >

How do you buy a PhD? Honest question, from someone who actually has a PhD. Some fields may be different, but you don't usually pay tuition at all for a PhD. You "pay" for a PhD by doing TA work, teaching, doing research, and getting grants. It's exploitative for sure, but in the sense of the uni exploiting low paid labor, not the PhD student buying a degree. >

Lots of salty people in here because they aren’t as educated as others and are trying to justify their sense of ego. >

I know right? Dont be fooled guys, a phd person is a phd person for a reason. They are not average joes or marys. >

It’s a huge commitment to learning and go figure learning makes you smarter lol >

Education =/= Intelligence >

Some of the dumbest people i know say theyre ReelySmart >

Reelly* 
Learn to spell idiot /s >

I don’t think this is an unpopular opinion. Doctors, like you and I, are human. And some humans are dumb. >

Well to become a qualified doctor takes an insane amount of hard work and accumulation of understanding in the field. 
It just surprises me how some qualified doctors can achieve this. Their academic abilities do not seem to correlate with their overall general intelligence and competence. >

A lot of people are gifted in the area of academics but absolutely have no creativity and applying their knowledge is very difficult.  I know several people who are very brilliant students but have never been able to figure out life. >

Seriously. A lot of people are good at academics and think they're intelligent in all areas... but man, they're some of the stupidest people around. >

There are different kinds of intelligence. Makes sense that some people that are incredibly smart in one area aren’t going to be the same in another. >


there are different kinds of intelligence

Truth right here. I genuinely believe intelligence is not only academic ability, but maturity, compassion, self-reflection, and willingness/capacity to evaluate other viewpoints. 
I’ve tried to communicate with people who showed none of these latter traits, and they were indistinguishable from morons. Their arrogance and selfishness had clouded their minds to the point that new information simply meant nothing to them. >

This reminds me of a story my dad told me a long time ago.
He was working as a mover for a company, they we're moving the super rich doctor out of a multi-million dollar house into another multi-million dollar house. Dude was regarded as one of the best neurosurgeons in our state at the time.
He started screaming and berating the movers because they told him it was physically impossible for them to move this couch down this flight of stairs to the basement where he wanted it. He demanded to know why it wasn't possible.
My dad basically had to sit the guy down and explained to him, that he didn't build the house, and he didn't design the couch, the people that did, did not collaborate with each other, and it is physically impossible for us to move this object down there. There is not enough space no matter which way we twist turn or try to get it down there.
The dude just could not comprehend that a certain shape can't fit in a certain hole, but he was literally a fucking neurosurgeon. I could never in a billion years do the things that this guy does, but at the same time, I would like to think that I could successfully solve a toddler puzzle. >

Did you PIVOT the couch down the stairs? >

Depends what you mean by 'dumb'. A lot of doctors seem to have excellent memory and analytical speed. A lot of academically bright people aren't so smooth socially, it goes beyond medicine.