Harvard Neurologist vs bottom-tier NS: What is more prestigious?

[Guest]

Interesting to see all the different takes. I have thought about this question over the past few days and have come to the following conclusions. 



Personally, I would say the neurosurgeon gets more prestige. NS requires a combination of physical ability + strong mental ability + personality.

Neurologists involves mental ability only. 

However, if the neurologist has done original research, I would say the neurologist gets more prestige, at least for me. Original research takes a lot of intelligence, and it not just following the script. Original research -- discovering something new -- is by and large very hard. Of course, their are exceptions like you are just lucky, but that is unusual. 

However, if the neurologist has not done signifant original research, then I would say the NS. 

In my opinion, the ones with most prestige are the NS who do original research. Then comes the other people (PhD and doctors alike) who do original research. After that, surgery gets more prestige in general. 

I would say that any job that requires original thinking is a prestigious job, as that requires the most mental skills. So CEOs, top creative types and top scientists and enginerrs are the best in terms of intelligence. 

Again, I have thought about this topic long and hard and that is what I have come up with.

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Also, in case I forgot to make clear, the quality of original research is important. so the quality of originality is key. so a neurologist or even a family doctor who does top quality research is far more intelligent (better brain) than the neurosurgeon who does mediocre original research.

So for me at least, the quality of originality is what matters the most.

[Guest]

question is what is more prestigious, not which requires more intelligence. Harvard neurologist probably more intelligent and requires more intelligence than majority of private practice neurosurgeons. However, to speak to anyone outside of academic medicine, neurosurgeon anywhere trumps Harvard neurologist. Who outside of academia gives a damn about the quality or quantity of your publications?

[Guest]

Smartest people don't do medicine. Medicine is a great way for people of lesser intellect to pretend otherwise (and earn comparably).

The dumbest people from my med school class are the most successful/happy attendings because their simple minds are satisfied with the trinkets they can afford.

[Focus]

Extraordinarily smart people don't make good physicians beyond a point because it becomes increasingly hard to relate and interact with people. My general impression is that one to three standard deviations above the mean is the sweet spot. Unfortunately, as we often see, bad social skills are not just limited to smart people.

[Guest]

This thread…wow
My thoughts are as follows
Every field has a mix
Smart neurosurgeon will progress the field and go down in history in some way
Dumb neurosurgeon can work hard and learn to think in a logical way

Smart neurologist will progress medical therapy
Dumb neurologist are just mental master***** who want to pretend they are smart

A happy doctor is someone who doesn’t care but treats his patients and goes home to his wife and kids (eventually given work hours) and grows old with his family. Prestige doesn’t really matter but the lives you save do. Lay people will think neurologist and neurosurgeons are the same anyways (happens all the time)

[Guest]

Real question for the OJs out there: what makes you happy?