So it seems like there are two questions here: 1. All said and done, when one is about to die, do you look back on your contributions to society and say "yes I

So it seems like there are two questions here: 1. All said and done, when one is about to die, do you look back on your contributions to society and say "yes I am glad I did that, even at the expense of not being with my family as much as I should have been". Or do you say "despite all that, I wish I spent more time with my own family and kids" It sounds like this profs answer is the latter. It is humbling since death seems to be such a ultimate leveller. He has certainly led a 'special' life, spending many years in research contributing to the pool of knowledge for humanity, yet at the end, it is almost like he rediscovered what was more important was something very simple and had nothing to do w/ "the world" or "humanity". It was just his family. This is slightly disturbing for me, since I want to make a difference in the world and I do think its important to my life. Will I look back one day, on my deathbed as he is, and discard all of my contributions (or attempts at contributions) as worthless and readily trade it in for just a few more moments with my family? Will i then be overcome with regret that I sacrificed so much to pursue something that meant so little to me? It does give me pause. Perhaps some of my friends, who are not trying to do so much, are the ones who really understand the meaning of life. 2. Changing careers and giving back On the career side, I agree w/ you. Staying in your circle is the best. I have also come to the conclusion that the best way I can help the world is through entrepreneurship and business. I'm not talented enough to do research. One day I hope to be able to support a professorship for some talented maverick professor who has game changing ideas for humanity but is not 'fundable' by government programs. I did a successful startup that got acquired by a larger company, and we do software to allow businesses to get better feedback from customers. "Whats world changing about that" you might say, but the way I talk about it with my customers and my coworkers is that "if we do our job right, we are changing the strategy of these multi billion dollar corporations by allowing them to make what their customers want. This touches millions of people in the products/services they have available to them". I know, its not like we found the cure for aids. We did not solve global warming. (Definitely a big concern of mine) But we are here at work. And we are here doing this job. Lets make it meaningful, do the best we can, and see if we can't help in whatever small way instead of lamenting how we are not doing x or y. Maybe this will not be enough for me 2 years down the road. But for me, feeling my spine tingle as I explain how much impact our product can have is enough to keep me going for now.