>Medicine is so much more than "knowledge, experience, and pattern matching", as any patient ever can attest to.

Humans (doctors/nurses) can still be there to make you feel the warmth of humanity in your darkest times, but if a machine is going to perform better at diagnosing (or perhaps someday performing surgery), then I want the machine.

Even now, I'll take a surgeon that's a complete jerk over a nice surgeon any day, because if they've got that job even as a jerk they've got to be good at their jobs. I want results. I'll handle hurt feelings some other time.

I'd be a little bit careful here - being a jerk is quite different to non-conformity / red sneaker effect in surgery and it is not a quality you should look for.

The truly compassionate surgeons will want to improve their skills because they care about their patients. They care if they develop complications and may feel terrible if they do, the jerk may not. Being a jerk may mean that the surgeon can rise to the top, but it may not be due to surgical skill at all, they may be better at navigating politics etc.

> Even now, I'll take a surgeon that's a complete jerk over a nice surgeon any day, because if they've got that job even as a jerk they've got to be good at their jobs.

This seems like an incredibly poor line of reasoning.

Hospitals are often desperate for surgeons. The poorly mannered ones are often deeply unsatisfied, angry at the grueling lives they've opted into, and the hospitals can't replace them. The market is not exactly at work here.

I haven't known doctors or nurses to be very warm and fuzzy. I have known them to have real world experience in seeing the outcomes of their actions instead of...

Dude you removed my right thumb I was in for an appendectomy!?

You are so right! I ignored everything you asked for. I am so sorry. I am administering general anesthesia now, then I will prepare you for your next surgery.