Another interesting story in undergrad I had a thesis supervisor who was working in cosmology, but had a 20 year career in high energy particle physics (5 as a grad student, 10 as a research scientist and 5 as a pre-tenured faculty member). Basically the moment he got tenure he switched from experimental particle to observational cosmology because as he said "I saw the writing on the wall that after the higgs there was no clear direction for high energy and no clear direction for even finding a way out of the aimlessness." I thought it was kind of crazy that he had a multi-year plan for leaving particle, but I guessed it worked out for him he is now reasonably successful and is a leader in both DESI and LSST. I ended up leaving physics entirely.

Can you expand on why staying in physics longer would have been detrimental?

Not OP, but I have a similar feeling.

I was on my way starting masters on Mathematics when I discovered I would be a father, I had to find and start a career so that I could make ends meet.

From my perspective I am glad that happened, I was excessively ambitious, comparing myself with the great ones in the field, measured my self-worth on regard of my ability to solve problems.

Having to swallow my pride, learn to talk with other people as equals so that I could provide for my family made me a better person. I am not sure I would have done this breakthrough isolated on my intellectual bubble, not even talking about the difficulties of engaging with egos at the academia.

Sometimes I miss the excitement of learning something really difficult or solving some problem from a new perspective, but I am glad I am mentally healthier. I am not saying that it's not possible to be healthy and pursue a high level on Mathematics or other intellectually challenging field, but that can enable bad patterns for some people.

> bad patterns for some people

I have definitely seen that in other people when I was doing my physics undergrad. And to some extent, I probably experienced that myself.

I was on the road to starting a Cosmology PhD with incredibly high aspirations but my (then) girlfriend gave me an ultimatum: physics or me. To be fair, she was the primary bread winner and a graduate lifestyle would have been an even greater strain on the relationship. So, I opted for the latter and went into software. Also, like you, I have no regrets.

I still miss physics incredibly and, you’re right, there is something exceedingly sexy about solving those (including mathematics here) sorta problems. I sort of see it as a way to reach across generations and walk the same paths as the giants have. Anyway, I do find a great amount of joy in software problems, but nothing beats that first love.

> From my perspective I am glad that happened, I was excessively ambitious, comparing myself with the great ones in the field, measured my self-worth on regard of my ability to solve problems.

This is something that I have observed in the sciences: a pernicious, unquestioned, and false great man theory of how science progresses (I wrote about it a little more here: http://madhadron.com/into_the_sciences-sample.html).

Opportunity cost!

Yes, this is it. I became not so motivated in physics. I have enjoyed the work I have done since then more. I missed the golden age of physics but instead have been able to take part in the golden age (to date) of software and the internet.

Do you think the golden age of the internet is drawing to a close?

No, that is why I said this has been the golden age to date. Meaning I think there is much more to come. (So I guess maybe it really isn't the golden age then...)

Bump