BMJ  2008;336:1044 (10 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39570.465266.59

Observations

Out of Hours

The secret lives of doctors

On the whole, people don’t become doctors because they were destined to do so but because they weren’t good enough at anything else

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

For a few people, the main theme of their working lives becomes obvious in early childhood. Picasso’s first word was "piz"—a diminutive of lápiz, the Spanish for pencil. Given a chess set and the rules of the game at the age of 6, Bobby Fischer immediately taught himself how to play and soon had time for nothing else. And it is hard to imagine that the boy Mozart was often asked what he planned to do when he grew up. It is true that some discover their talent a little later. Matisse, for example, trained as a lawyer and took up painting only while convalescing after appendicitis. Still, I doubt if there was much talk of a career in jurisprudence after that.

All these, of course, were undoubted geniuses. Their gifts, once discovered, were so prodigious, so overwhelming, that they had no choice but pursue them. The rest of us . . . [Full text of this article]

Rapid Responses:

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Uninspired?

Sarah H Pennington
bmj.com, 10 May 2008 [Full text]

Tongue in cheek or just plain inflammatory

mark spears
bmj.com, 10 May 2008 [Full text]

Nonsense

David Menzies
bmj.com, 10 May 2008 [Full text]

I disagree

David J Lloyd
bmj.com, 11 May 2008 [Full text]

The secret lives of doctors

Chris S Wilkinson
bmj.com, 12 May 2008 [Full text]

Missing the point

David Menzies
bmj.com, 13 May 2008 [Full text]

Every coin has two sides

Lakunle A Jaiyesimi
bmj.com, 14 May 2008 [Full text]

The Real Lives of Doctors

Karishma Sethi
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Et Tu Brutus?

Jayaprakash Ayillath Gosalakkal
bmj.com, 14 May 2008 [Full text]

The Power of the Ordinary

Graeme Mackenzie
bmj.com, 15 May 2008 [Full text]