Today, I have checked in with a good doctor and the diagnosis was great. I recommend you follow my advice.
One of the great things about blogging is that you get to make friends with like-minded people in the blogging world. One of the blogs that I absolutely enjoy reading is authored by my friend at Physician on FIRE.
Dr. POF, as he is known, is an accomplished anesthesiologist. He brings in a sizable haul of money from his job (lot more than me certainly) but we both have similar goals when it comes to financial independence and a passion for number-crunching. What I love most is that he has a unique sense of humor that is rare to find these days in the medical profession, which has become so….let’s say lot less interesting.
I have learned a lot about the lives of doctors and the issues they face from Dr. POF’s blog and others like him. The money is great but they do pay a heavy price for it, especially in their early years accumulating a lot of debt.
You all know an anesthesiologist puts people to sleep before surgery but that’s a layman’s understanding. Getting the right dosage of the right medicines in to calibrate with each patient’s physiology, having the patient remain in that state for the right duration till the surgery is done and having the patient wake up at the right time – all this make it a very demanding job.
Despite being in such a busy and demanding profession, I find it amazing that Dr. POF is seemingly “everywhere” on the PF blogosphere. He puts out excellent content on his website frequently and also, reads and posts comments on so many other websites.
Where does he get the time, I wonder? I heard doctors sleep fewer hours than the rest of us but still?
It must be somebody’s loss. But it is our gain. The larger FIRE community and the aspirants gain tremendously from having Dr. POF being a blogger. When he asked me to participate in his Christopher Guest Post series, how could I refuse?
Some questions weren’t easy but they were fun. Especially, indulging with his fascination for the number 11. Some of them really made me think but it was good fun writing up a self-diagnosis for the good doctor.
Check out my post on his blog. You can share your comments there or here.
Keep up the great work, Dr. POF! Delighted to be able to check in with you today.

Raman Venkatesh is the founder of Ten Factorial Rocks. Raman is a ‘Gen X’ corporate executive in his mid 40’s. In addition to having a Ph.D. in engineering, he has worked in almost all continents of the world. Ten Factorial Rocks (TFR) was created to chronicle his journey towards retirement while sharing his views on the absurdities and pitfalls along the way. The name was taken from the mathematical function 10! (ten factorial) which is equal to 10 x 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 3,628,800.
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