Advising brilliant students.

In August, while visiting the Bay Area, I met up with a mentee who just graduated Harvard College in May and who has now begun medical school at the University of California, San Francisco.

This remarkable young person has contributed to some of my research and to Inside Medicine. I’m excited that he has started medical school—he’s brilliant and I’m glad he has decided to apply his talents toward becoming a physician.

I’ve been mentoring him for a few years. But now that he’s actually in medical school, I have found myself thinking differently about advising him through his career options.

With his permission, I thought I’d share some of this. Above all, how do I guide one of the more talented young minds I’ve ever encountered—and do so effectively without putting pressure on him to do what I might like to do, if I were fortunate enough to have his brain?