Because I legitimately thought it would be a field where I could maximize how much of my brain I used. Instead, it turned out to be 99% dishwashing. I very muc

Because I legitimately thought it would be a field where I could maximize how much of my brain I used. Instead, it turned out to be 99% dishwashing. I very much loved undergraduate studies. I legitimately love studying what has been done and what has been discovered already. While we often say that we know nothing (it's somewhat true), the amount of human knowledge that already exists, especially in the life sciences, is unfathomable. And that's genuinely challenging and exciting. But as soon as you start actually doing the research work, it's a lot less exciting, not much happens, and there is not a lot of problem solving (at least not in comparison to software). It's just a slow methodical grind, with pretty much no pivoting opportunities. You just stick to the plan, and you must try the same thing over and over again. I was surprised by that. Your experiences may differ depending on where you worked, on your funding obligations, and on your specific research area. And after you finish your PhD, you might get lucky and get one of these fancy $ 40k post-doctoral fellow salaries. /s (The way science works at a large scale is pretty fantastic, but how it feels for an individual is a very different thing.)