> This is especially true in math and physics. You will find that no matter what problem you can think of, either it has already been solved to the highest leve

> This is especially true in math and physics. You will find that no matter what problem you can think of, either it has already been solved to the highest level of abstraction, or it's an unsolved and famous problem, or not worthwhile/trivial. I did not experience this in my 8 years in academic math (PhD + postdoc). Maybe it differs a lot from field to field, but mine was positively teeming with unsolved problems. More importantly, it's teeming with paths that will clearly lead to more unsolved problems (of all difficulty and importance levels). In fact, the thing I miss the most from academia is probably helping new students blaze some of those new paths. Both for their sake, and as a way for me to discover new problems for myself.