Why the Surgeon at the Hospital Does More Good Than the Volunteer at the Shelter
Medical school has been both challenging and clarifying for me.
The rigor of the program demands discipline and quick recall, yet I have noticed it often emphasizes memory and application over the kind of open-ended, creative problem-solving I once encountered in courses like Game Theory or Discrete Mathematics.
Those earlier experiences gave me frameworks to explore models, manipulate assumptions, and seek optimal outcomes, and I find myself still drawn to that way of thinking.
This inclination to optimize, to search for structure and clarity, has shaped how I view service and contribution. Much of our society celebrates forms of service that are visible, immediate, and emotionally resonant, like volunteering.
Yet, I often find myself asking: what is the true cost of these actions, and what is the most effective way to use one’s time and talent?
The only 3 drivers of action
Take volunteering as an example. On the surface, it is unpaid labor freely given. But that labor is never without cost; the opportunity cost is always time. So why would someone give that time away? Often, it is in exchange for meaning, purpose, or status. These are not bad motivations. But they raise an important question: what happens when the work that best uses one’s skills and training is not volunteering at all, but the very work one is already being paid to do?
Consider a surgeon. In an ideal world, would we prefer to see that surgeon distributing food at a shelter, or saving lives in the operating room? Clearly, the highest value comes from applying rare, specialized skills where they matter most. Yet paradoxically, our culture sometimes treats the second choice as less noble, simply because it is compensated. Why should this be so?
This leads to the larger question: what is the best way to measure contribution? Hours worked do not tell the full story. An hour from one person may not equal an hour from another. Social approval is equally flawed — charisma can win followers more easily than quiet, life-saving work. Money, however, offers a clearer metric. No one parts with it easily. If someone pays, it is because they received something they valued more than the money itself.
A better use of your time & money
Even saving and investing money carries this logic. Investment directs capital into systems that are proven to deliver value at scale. A thousand dollars placed into Apple does not just sit in an account; it flows into designing devices, supporting research, creating jobs, and building tools that people demonstrably want. In this way, investment itself can be a far more powerful act of service than an isolated hour of volunteerism.
This perspective does not diminish the human importance of kindness or selfless acts. Rather, it challenges us to see service through a wider lens — one that accounts for unmeasured externalities, aligns incentives, and recognizes that the most effective contribution often comes from leaning into our greatest skills and opportunities.
God gave us minds capable of building systems that improve the world. The task before us is not to reject money or specialization, but to understand them, align them with real human needs, and use them wisely. If we succeed in this, we may find that true service is not in choosing between “noble” and “profitable,” but in seeing how the two can become one and the same.