Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
You might have come across this viral 40-minute video on YouTube from Dr. Goobie and thought “I’ll watch it later..”
Read about the journey of an MIT-trained neurosurgeon who quit his job and is finding a new meaning of life. Here’s the story of how Dr. Goobie went from the unhappiest he’d ever been to the happiest.
Table of contents
Dr. Goobie and 11M Views
“This long video got 11 million views in one month?!” I remembered thinking when I saw it on my recommendations list. An account named Goobie and Doobie with the profile picture of a furry white dog caught my eye. In the dawn of TikTok short form videos, this is virtually unheard of.
I clicked to watch it, and it is super slow-paced in the beginning. It shows Dr. Goobie, an MIT educated and trained neurosurgeon, in a picturesque mountain. He started his channel in April 2024, and had uploaded 200+ videos of his nature walk- but this video is different.
“Hi, I’m Goobie from Goobie and Doobie. So I used to be a neurosurgeon…” he started.
Why He Quit
To be honest, Dr. Goobie’s resume is an enviable one to anyone around the world. He went to college in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, trained in neurosurgery at the same institution, and worked as a neurosurgeon in Washington. If any resume can scream “smart, reliable, dependable”, it would be his.
In total, he spent 10 years to finally become a neurosurgeon. This is a rigorous job, and it would be strange if someone unmotivated or flaky can stand such courses. Which is why it’s even more shocking for Dr. Goobie to quit his job.
After working for nearly ten years, he finally had enough and quit in 2023. Why?!, you might ask, how can someone go through almost 20 years of that and quit?
The answer? In his own words, moral injury.
Dr. Goobie’s Moral Injury
It goes back to the whole reason why he became a neurosurgeon in the first place. The 40-year-old wanted to help people and relieve suffering. His first choice was a niche that ultimately had severe limitations: brain-machine interface. Knowing that, he changed course into brain and spine surgery.
His working environment and colleagues were all good, but Dr. Goobie wondered why he became the “most unhappy he had ever been” and even gained 40 lbs. He began to question the efficacy of the surgical procedures he performed. With the exact same perfect surgery, some patients can get better, worse, or stay the same. The surgeries do not seem to address the root cause of the problem with his patients.
Moral injury is when someone goes against their deep moral values, and Dr. Goobie was struggling with it for some time. Was he going against his own belief to help people?
Healthcare System in the United States
The way the hospitals are set up in the United States is not ideal for patients to heal on their own. To be economically sustainable, hospitals need doctors to prescribe medications or perform surgeries. These incentives are not ultimately promoting people’s healing, is what Dr. Goobie discovered.
He finally quit because of his disbelief in his own profession and the healthcare system. “My body, mind, and soul would have just broken down, and I don’t think I would have made it to 60,” Dr. Goobie described his condition at the time.
What Dr. Goobie is Doing Now
Dr. Goobie had quit in September 2023 with his wife’s support and he’s “never been this happy before”. He is now a creator on YouTube, making nature hike videos with Doobie– his dog. His surprise breakout video has now reached 11M views, and he is currently at 355k subscribers. As a result, he now wants to share more about how to help the body heal better and help more people.
Help Your Body Heal Better with These Things
He wanted to figure out why people arrive at such different outcomes long-term, how some people heal so fast compared to others. Here are the factors he mentioned in the video:
1. Whole foods, plant based diet (most important!)
2. Low sodium intake, especially for those living in colder climates
3. Not smoking and drinking alcohol
4. Mental well-being (not stressed)
5. Exercise
6. Good social support (not lonely)
7. Sleeping for 8 hours every day
8. Mindfulness
People’s Reactions
A lot of people flocked into the comments, cheering for Dr. Goobie’s career change and pursuit of a new life. Many also relates to the state of the country’s medical system, and how burnout has become so common in the modern life. Some commented that they never sat through a 45-minute video before.
In another video, a former colleague and fellow neurosurgeon Dr. Betsy Grunch applauded him on speaking out. She shared that Dr. Goobie was an incredibly smart person and a great surgeon. His strength in quitting and sharing this video to the world are admirable.
Some comments did talk about how the population suffering from lower back pain is just different from other specialties, and how disillusionment from surgery outcomes can cause burnout.
Help Your Body Heal Series
He continued by uploading a series on how to improve the body’s healing process. They are deep dives into the factors mentioned above. Will you be watching?
Comment to let me know if you’d like more articles on Dr. Goobie’s healing series! 😊
TL;DR Summary
Dr. Goobie, an MIT educated and trained neurosurgeon, gained attention with his viral video explaining his decision to quit after 20 years. His decision is due to moral injury, feeling that the surgeries he performed often didn’t address the root cause. He criticized the U.S. healthcare system for prioritizing profit over patient well-being. Since quitting, Dr. Goobie has become a YouTube content creator, focusing on nature walks and sharing insights on holistic healing approaches. His video resonated with many, sparking discussions about burnout in the medical field and the need for systemic changes in healthcare.
For more interesting stories, check out the What Happened To… series.
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