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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   27523 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 6, 2023

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There's a stereotype that soldiers, nurses, and adrenaline junkies get around a lot

There's certainly an element of truth to it, but speaking from my own experience I don't hink the mechanism is "decoupling" so much as just being hungrier, hornier, and having a shorter time-horizon than most. The old cliche about your first meal after a brush with death being the best meal of your life is a cliche for a reason. It's True. IME everything from food sex and alcohol to the morning commute just feels more immediate and "alive" when contrasted with the alternative. Be it @JTarrou's "violent class" or med students who find themselves attracted to Trauma Medicine and backcountry skiing I think that sort also tends to be sort who'll take the old saw about "live each day like it might be your last" and play it 100% straight.

Hmm. At my medschool...future surgeons and OB-GYN students seemed to be the wildest. Future pathologists and radiologists? We were sticks in the mud. I know a mountaineering neurologist, backcountry skier surgeon, and pilot anesthesiologist.

Future surgeon certainly fits the stereotype in my mind

The stereotype you have of me, Skookum the Hockman...or the stereotype of people that get around a lot or are adrenaline junkies? For 1) it was surgeons and OB-GYNs plus a handful of ER docs. For 2) the same, plus (oddly enough) psychiatrists and pediatricians.

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