Sunday, January 24, 2010

Bad advice freely given

I was sitting in a consulting session with a visiting specialist the other day.  It was one of those odd experiences where we both realized at about the same time that we were roughly the same age as each other.  It's strange because he's at the top of his game whereas I'm still trying to find my dice.

He asked me what I did before medicine so I was telling him how I used to be an engineer working for the defence department and decided that I really should use my powers for good instead of evil.  I then broke out the joke about how I chose a new career when I was talking to someone and they said to me, "You're a rocket scientist?  That's nice, but it's not exactly brain surgery."  (I freely admit that I stole this joke from this youtube clip.)

The specialist then said to me, "See, you're my age but you think like a Gen-Y.  What you need to do is get a shitload of debt.  Then you'll enjoy your job, because it'll be the only way you'll ever crawl out from under your mortgage."  I had to laugh.

He then asked me if I had any kids (I don't).  He started trying to convince me to have kids as soon as possible and he did it in typical medical style.  He said, "At age 25 you've got a 75% chance of conceiving in the next year.  At age 35 it's dropped to 25%.  So you'd better get started. Plus it's a great way to pull a lot of roots."

Now that's charisma.

7 comments:

jamie said...

"Pull a lot of roots"?
Is he a gardener as well as a doctor?

PTR said...

Either that or a dentist...

Anonymous said...

I'm no ex-rocket scientist from DoD - but if your goal is to "pull a lot of roots" - surely you should start as late as possible?

The lower the chance of conception, the more times you're (probably) going to have to roll the dice. So, your role model should be Rupert Murdoch (now, there's a phrase I thought I'd never type).

PTR said...

I'm uncomfortable with how hard you've been thinking about this... but I think you're right.

Christine said...

Trust me. Worse if you are a woman. Its like sport betting on the age of your uterus.

:)

Anonymous said...

Christine, I know this Indian bookmaker called "John". He'd be really keen to call you every now and then.

He'd just like to chat with you about your uterus, what sort of condition it's in - just general conversation. He'd be willing to compensate you handsomely for your time. You could even just text him!

PTR said...

Sometimes I really just don't know what to say...