GAW, I often agree with your posts, but I don’t think it’s that realistic for a surgeon to work 6 hours weekly in this country. Perhaps there are surgeons who actually perform surgery for only 6 hours weekly, but surgeons also spend many hours per week seeing patients in the office or clinic and consulting in the hospital, not to mention continuing education requirements.
Also keep in mind that qualifying as a surgeon in this country requires an undergraduate degree (including all med school prereqs), an MD (4 years), and residency training (I think it’s about 5 years for surgeons). Some specialties require additional fellowship training. Except for perhaps the undergraduate degree and the 4th year of med school, the training/ education process is very intense & the hours are very long. Most physicians probably wouldn’t be able to learn many hours a day while completing their education and training.
Someone looking to spend much of the day learning would in my opinion be better served by choosing a non-surgical specialty; some residencies are only three years long and not all positions require fellowship training.