I feel like now that this blog has kind of transformed into a med student blog (ok, well actually has, overnight), I have to comment on pimping.
Pimping is basically what attending physicians do to students in order to "teach." There are many different styles, and everyone has their own opinion, but here's mine.
There are essentially three types of doctors: those who don't pimp at all, those who pimp but really want you to learn (nice-pimping), and those who pimp because they can/hate students/have identity issues/hate people in general/hate their job (angry-pimping). I thought I'd prefer the non-pimpers, but you honestly don't learn anything on those rotations. I still feel like a complete idiot during constructive (nice) pimping, but I definitely remember that stuff.
You can pretty much predict what kind of pimping to expect by the service. Psychiatrists and family medicine docs tend to be more nurturing and point interesting things out (which I appreciate immensely, but promptly forget). This, however, is good to have every few months to allow neuronal healing. Surgeons tend to be on the other side of that spectrum.
As a med student, you also get really used to answering "I don't know." The first few times are painful, as most of us are type A perfectionists, but after a few times it becomes second nature. So, really the difference between being nice-pimped and angry-pimped is how embarrassed and humiliated you feel when you say "I don't know."
The worst kind of pimping is when it's not even related to medicine, like when that CT surgeon pimped me for 7 hours during a surgery about what band sang each song on his iPod (I got one right, total). That's by far the biggest ego deflation, as you don't feel worthy enough to even get angry-pimped.
So thank your lucky stars when you get nice-pimped, or even angry-pimped. At least they're acknowledging your role as a student.
Addendum 1/9/2012:

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