This might come down to being a goal oriented person versus a process oriented person. I got a PhD in theoretical physics. By the end of graduate school I was

This might come down to being a goal oriented person versus a process oriented person. I got a PhD in theoretical physics. By the end of graduate school I was really unmotivated. I decided to leave physics and do something else, as yet to be determined. In order to go through any of the job interviews through the university you had to first go to a career counsellor. I had absolutely zero expectations, but I of course did it anyway. When I walked in, the first thing the career counsellor said to me was "You don't look like an academic." I looked like a football player in those days. He continued something to the effect, "Athletes are usually goal oriented people. They can put themselves through a lot of pain because they are interest in reaching an end. Academics are usually process oriented people. They enjoy working a problem and seeing all the angles of it and they are not driven by finishing it." Granted, this is a generalization and does not apply to all academics or athletes. One of my professors Lenny Susskind, a famous physicist, is also an athletic guy. I don't think this changed the way I did anything but it was very insightful. You can find problems with both types of people and at the same time they both have their values. For computer programming, particularly in a startup, being goal oriented is very helpful. Someone process oriented would probably be much happier doing something else.