I started working at startups in the early 00's right out of school, and arrived at roughly the same conclusion you did. I switched to working in higher ed at

I started working at startups in the early 00's right out of school, and arrived at roughly the same conclusion you did. I switched to working in higher ed at a research institution (making much less, of course). I won't pretend that I'm out there saving lives or anything, and I won't pretend that there's not still a massive amount of BS and red tape, but at the end of the day I do go home and think I might be contributing something actually useful to the researchers and educators who are using my software. It's important to not define yourself by your work, but it's also important to feel like your work has some meaning. I just couldn't find that at startups (even one I had high hopes for, in the energy sector working on smart grid tech).