When doing math at school I never quite enjoyed it because it didn't feel like it could "scale". You always had to do these clunky calculations which are so err

When doing math at school I never quite enjoyed it because it didn't feel like it could "scale". You always had to do these clunky calculations which are so error prone, that the slightest mistake could mess up your whole work. Instead of focussing on the essence, my mind was occupied with not messing things up when applying the "instructions". I always wondered how the industry would actually use math to solve its problems. With programming/mathematical software, it finally clicked and it gave me a powerful, practical tool to make mathematics work. Finally it was not so much about not messing up, but about actually building something. I enjoyed it a lot and in the end I obtained a PhD in theoretical particle physics and became a software developer.