One of the main problems of human intelligence is people's inability to discern between those two. (others are our inability to accurately assess risk, and our tendency to see the world the way we want to see it instead of how it is)
Of course it can also be a problem if you prioritize the specific too much. You get the WebMD syndrome where everybody thinks they have the most unlikely dangerous diseases based on symptoms.
Most of the stuff on WebMd is fairly generic still. Wikipedia has been the sword that cuts both ways in my experience. WebMD just makes you think you have cancer.
Headache from sleeping wrong? Parkinson's.
I've seen some insane stuff with psych tests. Do you find yourself crying without reason? Out of boredom, so yes. Then I must have be depressed.
It's little better than those questionnaires people made up on late 90's websites.
Do you dream of flying? Sure. You are an alien/vampire/unicorn. Actually now that I've written this out, I'm starting to figure out where a lot of modern entertainment got its ideas from...
Having spoken and worked with some of the content writers from WebMD, their goal was to optimize for SEO first and foremost. They were quite good at that for a long time.
Yeah, it's actually fairly nice. The problem is people want the extreme and rare. They aren't willing to be honest about it.
However, every technology starts with crazies and criminals, so it's been fun watching stuff like this slowly grow to get better and help people find the diagnosis they need.
Or that one lady who was slightly anemic but quite pale, so she read up on the possible causes of anemia, visited the outpatient clinic and demanded to be treated with rituximab and cyclophosphamid for her "B cell lymphoma".
Honestly, the worst stories I have are from doctors who were diagnosing beyond their specialization. People with a fugue state that actually turned out to be a concussion, or not actually anemic, just Scottish.
One of the main problems of human intelligence is people's inability to discern between those two. (others are our inability to accurately assess risk, and our tendency to see the world the way we want to see it instead of how it is)
Of course it can also be a problem if you prioritize the specific too much. You get the WebMD syndrome where everybody thinks they have the most unlikely dangerous diseases based on symptoms.
Stop lying, it's always Lupus.
Most of the stuff on WebMd is fairly generic still. Wikipedia has been the sword that cuts both ways in my experience. WebMD just makes you think you have cancer.
Headache from sleeping wrong? Parkinson's.
I've seen some insane stuff with psych tests. Do you find yourself crying without reason? Out of boredom, so yes. Then I must have be depressed.
It's little better than those questionnaires people made up on late 90's websites.
Do you dream of flying? Sure. You are an alien/vampire/unicorn. Actually now that I've written this out, I'm starting to figure out where a lot of modern entertainment got its ideas from...
Having spoken and worked with some of the content writers from WebMD, their goal was to optimize for SEO first and foremost. They were quite good at that for a long time.
Yeah, it's actually fairly nice. The problem is people want the extreme and rare. They aren't willing to be honest about it.
However, every technology starts with crazies and criminals, so it's been fun watching stuff like this slowly grow to get better and help people find the diagnosis they need.
Diarrhoea? Has to be a toxic megacolon.
Or that one lady who was slightly anemic but quite pale, so she read up on the possible causes of anemia, visited the outpatient clinic and demanded to be treated with rituximab and cyclophosphamid for her "B cell lymphoma".
Signed, Facebook MD.
Honestly, the worst stories I have are from doctors who were diagnosing beyond their specialization. People with a fugue state that actually turned out to be a concussion, or not actually anemic, just Scottish.
bwahaha brilliant
no thats just women :P
I was accused of that just five minutes ago by DH.