Do any of you guys ever feel like even though you're going down the best path, the grass is greener on the other side?

Do any of you guys ever feel like even though you're going down the best path, the grass is greener on the other side?

I feel like I've spent my early 20s understanding equations and relationships and while it's required for what I want to do, I look at other people in things like arts having the time of their lives.

t. mechanical engineer btw. For the most part I like what I'm doing, but I just feel like people in STEM generally have shittier early adult lives than people in arts. I get the whole delay of gratification thing, but I'll be so fucking old and gay by the time I actually get to where I want to go.

ME starts at >60k in the US. What delay in gratification? You could buy a house your first year out of college

I have 50k in student debt and I'm doing a masters because it's required in the job I want

You made a huge mistake.

What do you remember on your death bed? Your mid to late 40's? No. Your 50's? No.

You remember your teens, and your 20's. That is it. That is your life. Well done you skipped straight to late 20's and now it's just numbness and tedium until death.

Why doesn't school teach us this? Because if we all knew the truth, then society would collapse. You are sacrificing yourself for others.

It's the price you pay for a higher salary. Most liberal arts graduates can barely make ends meet.

If you don't like what you do then sort of this but maybe less depressing. I am a fellow Mech E and I like what I do because I feel like those other majors mean nothing to the world compared to scientists and engineers. You're using your intelligence and helping the world while they are reaping the benefits of a world already made for them and simply trying to make money to get by. So yeah, people in biz and liberal arts may have a less stressful time in school but their jobs play on favoritism and luck, so I hope you like your major or else you may have made a mistake, but its also never too late to get into another field

you just feel like this because you are in college. there is plenty of adventure to be had when you graduate, you just have to choose to go after it.

you'll be what? 23-24? shit man thats still young as shit, join the peace corps or take a field engineering position when you graduate. if you are a dude you are going to be having a blast in your early thirties provided you don't get married and squander all your money. that 50k in student loans aint shit, thats the price of a nice car. boo hoo, you might have to drive a shitbox for a few years while you earn 70k+ out of college. trust me man, if you don't have crazy vices you aren't going to know what to do with the money.

>You are sacrificing yourself for others.
Did not others before you sacrifice themselves so you could exist?

I graduated from theoretical physics, did PhD and stuff. I think I would have felt regret for my whole life, have I settled for a less demanding major. Also, STEM lets you create what you are craving for: magic, immortality and stuff that does not yet exist in this world, the stuff that can not be bought with money. It's better to not have something but having the means to strive towards it, than not having something and being helpless. Meh, I am happy sacrificing my first quarter of a century.

OP, I've been on the other side. I was failing out of STEM so I switched to the arts...now I'm back in college in my late 20's finishing what I started. I'm not even doing it for money...I make 60k a year and I feel like I'm slipping into dementia due to lack of stimulation.

If you have a genuine passion for science, you're making the right choice. I've felt like I've lived a life of ignorance up to this point. Partying hard and being lazy watching TV and vidya all day can get old quick. What you're learning will stick for a lifetime.

This guy is right, and to further his last point, even if you don't like what you do, it's way easier to transition into something else. My options were essentially the same crap.

This guy's mindset is terrible. He doesn't speak for people on their deathbed. What makes your 20's so special, compared to 30's, 40's? If you live a healthy lifestyle there's no reason you can maintain a youthful lifestyle into your 50's. You think Hugh Hef only reflected on his 20's?

I like you. What did you do your thesis on?

Yes

I went down the following path
>Stop caring about the fact that I have no friends
>Study all day
>Get straight A+'s, settling for A's sometimes
>Major in Computer Science, get great GPA and internship experience
>Multiple offers from top companies
>I now make hella bank
>My life is set
>R-right...?

Fuck no. I'm still suicidal. I'm still miserable. I still have no friends. Yay, I get to go to work and work hard for a multibillion dollar corporation's benefit, then I walk home in the rain and pace around my room contemplating suicide all night and shitpost on the internet, when I've lost the motivation to read and study even more

If I just study some more everything will make sense right? Get a bit better at math, learn a bit more theoretical CS, learn some more algorithms, learn more about AI and machine learning. Then my life will be good right?

No, I'll just be a more effective tool for this corporation

Fuck life, fuck everything, I want to kill myself. Why didn't I focus on learning how to make friends. Why didn't I focus on talking to girls or some shit? Why didn't I do ANYTHING but this? FUCK LIFE

FUCK MY LIFE.

(((THIS))) is the best path? The responsible one? Get good grades, get a good job, never break the law, make tons of money?

Yet live alone in a miserable apartment in with nobody to share my life with, walk home alone every day, go to sleep alone, wake up alone, go to work alone, work alone in my office, eat lunch alone in my office, walk home alone, be miserable all alone

Fuck my life

tl;dr
Study hard and get good grades but do NOT sarcifice a social life and doing fun things or whatever

Idk what the fuck I'm doing. I keep telling myself "eventually I'll end up getting a new job and moving and everything will be okay" I know it's just lies. I always tell myself "eventually it will get better" but it doesn't, EVER. THIS UNIVERSE IS CONSTANT SUFFERING

Jesus christ, leave that job and find a new one. Work culture can be a boost or a bane...sounds like your corporation lacks a soul.

You're alone because you aren't being social. You can't expect people to seek you find out and find you interesting. It's your responsibility to do that. Just make sure people don't suck you dry for money.

It's not the job, it's me. It's my genes and my brain

I'm relatively young. Just out of college with about a year of work experience.

All I know is the time I spend with friends (or alone, doing what I enjoy) is why I work. If your work isn't making your life easier and more bountiful, then it's going to work you to death.

I just took another job on the other side of the country and will have to build my life again. I'm frightened by having to start again, risking failure. I don't know if I'll have it as good as I used to.

Probably going to go back to school to get a PhD or masters - I know I'll need one for my plans. For now I'm just keeping my head down, work hard, and trying not to forget that I work to make MY life better.

I'm already 24, and I wont be done my msc until I'm 27. I was in the army/

>This guy's mindset is terrible. He doesn't speak for people on their deathbed. What makes your 20's so special, compared to 30's, 40's? If you live a healthy lifestyle there's no reason you can maintain a youthful lifestyle into your 50's. You think Hugh Hef only reflected on his 20's?

Because I won't be good looking enough or rich enough to slay the 17 year old pussy I've been craving since highschool. I'll just be an engineer that can buy a house. Who's now probably bald. Who lacks any real social development so I'll never get a hot girl who's been living their lives on the basis of social contact.

bro, what's your steam I think you need a friend

I'm in a masters program in nuclear engineering, physics undergrad. I guess the most "grass is always greener" is with regard to advisors, but my options were "guy with 16 grad students and can't keep up with them," "guy with 2 grad students that drops grad students at the drop of a hat," or "guy with 8 grad students but barely tells them what they should be doing." I choose the last one, and the lack of guidance really irks me and makes me feel like I'm not doing much of anything as the school year flies by simply because I don't know what I should be doing.

Friends aren't going to fall out of the sky like anime love interests unless you have some extremely extroverted coworkers. Try to do shit with coworkers. Find some activities you might like to do, be it soccer or a god-damned chess club at your bookstore. There's shit going on everywhere, and especially in this day and age with social media it's easy to find. You should be able to go on memebook and look for stuff going on in your area and meet people.

I know my brother hated it when he first got out of his PhD and started post-doc but he managed to develop a social circle through coworkers and via church/bible studies. I know that is not for everyone (especially on this board) but hey, it works for some people and is an option.

First off, shave your head, dude. Then exercise so you don't look scrawny or fat. You need to learn to love yourself before you can expect strangers to love you. That requires finding your own passions and perhaps being cultured. Your happiness shouldn't depend on the attention of others.

I'm a sick fuck who wants to bang 6th graders. I obviously can't do that, so I've accepted it and moved on. There isn't THAT much difference from a 17 y/o and a non-alcoholic 27 y/o. 17 y/o's are retarded honestly. You can spend 1-2k on a high class prostitute if you're that desperate.

You need to work on your social skills by starting small. Make small chat with strangers and find people with common interests on meetup.com, and try to appear friendly. I used to be autistic as fuck (raised by a single asian mom), and some people still think I'm weird, but I'm proud of my improvement. You have to throw yourself out there and not take comments personally. There are nice people out there, and you'll hate yourself if you don't try.

Your genes and brain seem fine to me. You sound smart, so don't allow yourself to become a victim and wallow in self-pity. Throw your meaningless pride out the window and put yourself out there.

You probably irk people with your mentality. Whatever it is you have to do, you're gonna have to put in a lot of work to change things.

That's what you get for going into engineering

Just do what you think will make you a better person, and everything else will work itself out. It's hard to have faith in something like that, and growing up in today's times especially instills a sort of cynicism about the woes of society; debt, job security, and all other matters of commercial factors of success.

For as much as people who do the arts in college are seen as those who are either too confident in their abilities as artists, or too stupid to do anything else, or even too lazy, there are many people who major in the liberal arts and in the visual, literary, or performing arts that do it because that's simply where they find happiness.

If you find happiness in Engineering, that's a wonderful thing, but if you let the strings attached to the competition and bureaucracy surrounding your field clog up the gears of your passion and happiness in life, then you need to take a step back and decide what you really want to do with your career. Work for a nonprofit for a little while, doing something for fairly low pay that gives experience and allows you to connect to other people. Figure out some niche subfield within your field that gives you a diamond boner because it genuinely strikes you as beautiful work. It's never too late to do that kind of thing, and it's never too early to start looking. Find what you love, and take steps towards becoming the kind of person that you think can embrace that.

t. geneticist

Eh.

I'm 25 years old and in my second year at an ivy league medical school. I sort of struck a middle ground, unlike some of you turbo autists. I fucked around pretty hard in undergrad, smoking weed every single day, skipping all nonmandatory classes, partying, etc. I felt like I actually enjoyed ages 18 to 22 and got the full stereotypical "college experience." I had a shitty GPA as a result tho (~3.2). I had to take two years to get competitive for applying after graduation. I had to catch up on all the bullshit extracurriculars that the premed faggots had been doing since freshman year while I was out getting high as fuck. I also took a year of post-bacc science classes in that time to boost my cumulative GPA. I got straight A's taking 6 full time science courses per semester at the local state school (soooo much easier than my Top 30 undergrad. What a joke). And finally I crushed the MCAT (95th percentile) and got in on my first try.

Though I'm still young, I feel like I already sowed my wild oats so to speak. I got it all out of my system. So now, while my classmates who used to be studious goodie two shoes premed faggots in undergrad are finding themselves burned out and tempted to go out and experience the social life they deprived themselves of during the golden years of their lives... I feel just the opposite. Theyre worried about losing their virginities and getting girlfriends (lol), meanwhile I have had my fill of whores and am now married. In essence, I have zero worldly distractions and can focus on my studies like a fucking monk. I shun all opportunities for socializing. I never go to any parties, never go to the bar, and have zero friends. I study 12-14 hours per day everyday and am always the last person to leave the library. I feel fucking fantastic in general. I am going to end up in a highly coveted lifestyle specialty while these losers end up as primary care physicians doing the job that a nurse could do.

Business is not only about favoritism and luck, abut a lot of intelligence too. I find it hard to believe that the average IQ on Wall Street is much lower than the average among Physics postgrads.

but a lot about intelligence too*

So being a 30 year old wizard as an engineer is gonna be a blast?

You want to be his friend because he is rich.

30 year old here. Was in STEM, now business. Dedicated my 20s to study, career, and long term relationships.

Recently quit my job, ended my relationship, and am travelling Europe, have been for the last 3 months.

I'm fucking different hot girls every few days, and about to have my first threesome this weekend.

The grass is much fucking greener. I'd do anything to relive the last 5 years of my life.

If it’s worth anything, the chicks in higher up STEM classes crave a bf because females in STEM are more autistic and all around weirder with badder hygiene than the guys (think stallman but with bigger tits ). Just settle for those roasties.

You can pay escorts and not be a wizard, you know?

>CS major
>making insane money straight out of college
>get bored making CRUD apps
>go back to grad school
>now poor af

I pretty much got to live the well to do young adult life style and it got boring fast.

>Do any of you guys ever feel like even though you're going down the best path
I don't think I've ever made the best choice in any situation

>tfw not passionate about anything
>double in math & engineering cos they're what i hate the least
>slogging through college with very little free time to actually do anything

i wish i could actually make a living doing something i'm passionate about; or am i just being unrealistic?

ITT: Smart people who fell for the engineering meme.
Stay cucked.

understanding the universe is what I consider a good life. Those in the arts do not have this luxury. If STEM isn't for you don't continue to waste your time.

Maybe you're just passionate about not being passionate about anything?

If so, there's that. Now what do you do with that?

If they were really smart they wouldn't have gone into engineering in the first place.

Everyone makes mistakes senpai.

>going into (((industry))) as an employee
this was your problem
go get a phd then start ac ompany of your own

Beautiful

Is there anything you care about and would work towards regardless of the pay? Like the guy above said, maybe think about working for something that has a cause you care about besides meeting shareholders' expectations. You've already got the skills, time, and probably money - finding something and committing is the last thing.

it goes math first
if you want to be a freemason
you have to climb the steps in the rite order.
dont worry user.
it will all make sense in the end
its aobut the journey

Passion is overrated when picking a job. Most things that people are really passionate about can't be turned into a way to make a living, for obvious reasons.

Engineering is by far the most profitable field now. Why would you pick another major if you can't have a better outcome?

>mech. eng
nigga there's your answer. I'm doing physics and I'm those arts people you're talking about ie. having a fucking time of my life doing it.

I seriously don't understand why more people don't consider academic positions. It's so fucking easy if you're doing something applied and you get money thrown at you from all sorts of sources doing fuck all all day and going around the world presenting your results lmao.

I can't imagine being cucked in a cubicle after living like this.

>anime poster
you deserve this