>>12582182I chose based on what I thought was interesting (biology)
I'm 30 now, I'll tell you my life path real quick:
-tech in lab 2 years (harvard, not that anyone cares, that place is fucking poison and all the professors except maybe Church hates working there)
-get my PhD in the south (cell bio)
-fucking live in misery for the 6 years it took
-good with computers/did partly computation work, get hired by biotech
-get payed more than fucking double, work 9-5 on really interesting problems, get to go home and do my other hobbies and actually accumulate wealth and shit
-time off from work actually makes me more productive, appreciate problems more, rather than feeling like its a psychological weight
So roundabout, I sorta wish I just did a CS degree in college and picked up fun and interesting classes as my electives with 0 regard to "will it get me a job", since CS most certainly will. Hell I was hired almost a week into my internship because I actually knew how to code and proved it, and I'm currently the only one who knows how to code at the company, and they lament not having more coders.
THAT SAID, I'm glad I scratched the intellectual itch of science, but I'm definitely burned out of it for life.
Most all studies on happiness show that the happiest people have a well-paying job they aren't necessarily "passionate, do-or-die-for-life" about that gives them treats them well, and they have a fullfilling life outside of work with the money they make. This mirrors my experience.
The allure of "oooo a PhD!" wears off pretty quickly. It's only good for picking the prefix on your airplane ticket and making yourself 100% look like a self-entitled dick at parties.