The Idea of Professions — Mountains Beyond Mountains
August 14, 2012 § 2 Comments
There are two things I want to discuss from reading Mountains Beyond Mountains: the first is Paul Farmer, and the second is Paul Farmer being a doctor.
Last week I discussed briefly my interpretation of the concept of burn-out. It’s what happens when we work too hard, too fast, for too long, after we’ve bit off a little more than we can chew. We fall into that weird, half-depressed, half-tired state where things seem out of proportion and just a little impossible. But what if we’re Paul Farmer, and the “bit off a little more we can chew” is the poorest part of one of the most impoverished countries in the world? Every day, we work from sun-up until sun-up, at least more than four months a year. We fly between our $125,000 dollar professorships at Harvard Medical school and our home in Haiti, dialing our wife and daughter along the way. And when we’re doing none of those things, we’re the primary practitioner on call for any infectious-disease-related case at a very hectic Boston hospital.
By the way, we’re also broke, because all of our $125,000 paycheck goes to our kids, our mom’s mortgage, and our hospital in Haiti that serves hundreds of thousands of patients every year.
All of this makes me realize that I might have been a little wrong about the concept of burn-out — maybe sometimes there’s no such thing as working too hard, for too long. I’m not sure what to make out of the case of Paul Farmer yet, but it seems to me like there’s an incredible discipline that drives Dr. Farmer. It’s something I admire, and he’s forever going to be a role model to me.
The case of Dr.Farmer (being a doctor) has also helped me realize that the generalizations I’ve made about careers and professions are deeply flawed. I believe that many university students, myself included, categorize people in a general way. There are the businessmen and women, the engineers, the history/english/poly-sci majors, and the doctors. I don’t mean to be crude in my generalizations; as someone who falls into the “engineer” category, I resent this generalization, but am partly shaped by it nonetheless.
As a student studying Computer Science, I’ve often heard the idea that C.S. will help me break down bigger problems into smaller, more manageable ones. I’ve also heard that a good programmer knows how to compartmentalize, and divvy tasks between himself and his peers. Some say that developers have a keen ability to explain and discern difficult technical literature (who knows who came up with this one). All of these claims extend the concept that oftentimes engineers are like wild-cards — they can be played anywhere, in any profession.
Dr. Farmer’s patient interactions have led me to believe that the same is true for highly attentive doctors. His extreme discipline, deep passion, and uncanny ability to relate to both his patients and his acquaintances suggest he would be an incredible fit in any career. While the material knowledge Farmer has mastered is different from the business expertise of Tony Hsieh, I believe the concepts are completely cross-compatible. I feel that, had Farmer chosen a different path, he would have been just as capable, and just as passionate as he is currently about Haiti.
Thoughts?
Patterns 
I think some people are dealt good hands, so to speak. That no matter how they play their cards, they can only do so poorly. However, some ways of playing are still better than others. And so, whether you have been dealt a good hand, a bad hand, or an okay hand (like most of us), the decisions you make, the paths you choose, and last but not least, the luck and chance wildcards that inevitably change the game, all still matter. I just think it’s hard to say with certainty that had Farmer chosen a different path, he would have been just as great.
I agree that it isn’t necessarily reasonable to say that Farmer would have been as successful had he taken a different route. But I also believe that enduring successes have their foundations rooted in a person’s personality.
Sometimes I wonder about what would happen to the greatest minds of the last generation (Einstein, Oppenheimer, Edison) if they were born today. What would Einstein do if relativity and quantum mechanics were discovered by someone else? I believe that personalities are timeless, and actions come and go. Each of my role models has a slightly different perspective of the world we live in, and these minute differences are what make each individual truly great.